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AMERICAN PORTRAITS. 



BT OEORGE VTATTERSTOir. 

It 



THIRD EDITION. 



The proper study of mankind is man. 

POPJE. 






WASHINGTON. 

PUBLISHED BY FRANK TAYLOR. 

Jacob Gideon, Jr., Printer. 
1836. 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

Jrom the stage of life, their memory is still trea- 
sured up in the hearts and affections of their coun- 
trymen, and, for the reputation of their country, 
should be preserved and held up as splendid mod- 
els of excellence and imitation. America has 
produced but few such men as Pinckney, Lown- 
des, and King, and they should not be suffered to 
float down the oblivious current of time 

** Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.'* 

Most of those sketches have been taken from 
a little work of the author, publiohed in 1818, 
entitled " Letters from Washington,^' and osten- 
sibly written by a British nobleman to his friend 
in England. To the sketches hitherto publish- 
ed, the author has added some new ones of such 
of his countrymen as have since become emi- 
nent in public life. These he has endeavored 
to give with as much brevity and accuracy as 
possible, and he flatters himself they will be 
found alike free from the coloring of partiality 
and of prejudice. He regrets that he could not 
enlarge his gallery by the introduction of the 
portraits of others, who, though not equally dis- 
tinguished, are in some cases not less meritori- 
ous. This omission must be attributed to the 
desire of not throwing too many figures at once 
on his canvass, lest the uniformity might be dis- 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

agreeable ; and it is a gratifying circumstance 
that America can boast of so many men of such 
hisjh and merited distinction. 

The author, in the present edition, has added 
to his former sketches those of several distin- 
guished characters, who now figure prominently 
on the stage of public life, and the introduction 
of which will, he thinks, render his little volume 
more complete and interesting. The very favo- 
rable manner in which the former editions have 
been received, has led him to publish the pre- 
sent one, which from the additional number of 
sketches introduced, will, he flatters himself, be 
still more acceptible to the public. 



(6) 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction - - - page 5 

James Madison - - - - 9 

James Monroe 14 

Joiin Quincj Adams - - - 18 

William H. Crawford - - 25 

John C. Calhoun - - - - 28 

Henry Clay 34 

William Wirt 41 

William Pinckney - - . 49 

William Lowndes - - . 56 

Rufus King 61 

Richard Rush 65 

John Holmes 68 

Peleg Sprague ----- 69 

Daniel Webster - - - - 71 

Theodore Frelinghuysen - - 76 

John M. Clayton - - - • 78 

John Randolph ----- 81 

Littleton W. Tazewell - - 84 

Robert Y. Hayne - - - - 86 

John Forsyth 88 

Edward Livingston - - - 91 

Josiah S. Johnston - - - 93 

David Barton 94 

Edward Everett - - , - 97 

John Davis 101 

Tristam Burge^ - - - - 103 
Henry R. Storrs - - - - 109 
George McDuffie - - - - 112 

Letter from Mount Vernon 117 
Samuel L. Southard - - - 125 



CONTENTS. 

Thomas Ewing - - - - 129 

W. C. Preston 134 

Benj. Watkins Leigh - - 141 

Lewis Cass 144 

Levi Woodbury - - - - 149 

Martin Van Buren - - - 155 



.■-!-~r 



GALLERY 



OF 



AMERICAN PORTRAITS. 



JAMES MADISON. 

This gentleman is the fourth in succession 
who was raised to the first office in the gift of his 
country. He is small, but not inelegant, in his 
person ; his body is perhaps too large for symme- 
trical proportion, and his countenance is grave, 
but expressive of benevolence. He was of a less 
vigorous constitution than his immediate prede- 
cessor, though not less gifted by nature, or less 
improved by education. His mind was of a pecu- 
liar organization — acute rather than vigorous — 
profound rather than fertile, but not less compre- 
hensive than subtile. From his earliest years he 
was accustomed to the momentous questions of 
national policy, and devoted to the investigation of 
the great principles of government and the mea- 
sures best calculated for the national good. His 
state papers are distinguished for great neatness 
and precision of style, though they have sometimes 
been complained of as too diplomatic. His num- 
2 



10 MADISON. 

bers in the Federalist, written while he was still in 
his youth, are luminous and powerful expositions 
of the principles of the Federal Constitution and 
the views of its framers. These alone, had he 
done nothing else, would have transmitted his 
name to posterity, as the productions of a strong 
and cultivated intellect ; but his subsequent useful- 
ness has thrown them partially into the shade, and 
left a wider and more fertile field in which to rest 
his fame. His compositions are, I believe, princi- 
pally, if not exclusively, of a political character, 
and on subjects of the deepest interest and highest 
importance to the welfare of his country. As a 
statesman, Mr. Madison was liberal and profound, 
rising above the petty cabals and little intrigues of 
party, and wielding the destinies of the nation for 
the general good, and not for party purposes. He 
considered himself the father and friend of his 
countrymen, against whom a difference of political 
opinion did not produce hostility of feeling, or ex- 
cite indignation or vengeance. As a man, he was 
always agreeable ; conversing with freedom on any 
subject that might be introduced, and amusing his 
company with humorous anecdotes, of which he 
possessed a considerable fund. His colloquial 
powers were of no ordinary character, and were 
exercised, both in public and private companies, 
to the great amusement and delight of all who had 
the happiness to enjoy his society. His political 
anecdotes were numerous, and told with a humor, 
neatness, and point, that never failed to please ^ 



MADISON. 11 

and these were the more agreeable, as they were 
usually unexpected, from the general gravity of his 
deportment. He was easy, without being courtly 
in his manners ; serious, without the appearance of 
pride ; and occasionally reserved, without being 
repulsive. In common conversation, he was fluent 
and impressive, employing a style similar to that of 
his written compositions, neat, vigorous, and po- 
lished. In all the amiable qualities of the heart, 
none could surpass him : it gratified him to bestow, 
and pained him to refuse, a favor ; and hence he 
was sometimes charged with leaning too much to 
that party by which he was so often and so bitterly 
assailed. He had in him a large portion of " the 
milk of human kindness," which, not unfrequently, 
led him to grant favors to those whom he knew to 
be his enemies, and in all things to seek the good 
will and approbation of his countrymen, and of 
the world. Though mild and benevolent in no 
common degree, he had still sufficient energy of 
character to carry into execution those purposes, 
how much soever they might be opposed, which 
he believed were intended for the general good, 
or the reputation of his country ; nor was he ever 
diverted from a purpose once deliberately formed, 
so much by the threats of future injury to himself, 
as by the fear of doing an act of injustice to ano- 
ther. His humanity often " o'er informed his tene- 
ment of clay," and produced what the world might 
conceive to be an act of weakness, but what those 
who knew him best had no hesitation in ascribing 



12 MADISON. 

to its true motive — a sentiment of benevolence, and 
a desire to do right. Mr. Madison had an utter 
aversion to every thing like cruelty. Mercy was one 
of his most distinguishing characteristics ; and, I 
believe, he never could be prevailed upon to con- 
sent, durmg his administration, to sanction the ex- 
ecution of any criminal who had subjected himself 
to the awful penalty of death, unless his crimes had 
been of such turpitude and heinousness, as to render 
the extension of mercy to him pernicious to socie- 
ty. His levees and drawing rooms were generally 
crowded to excess, because all who went knew 
they would receive a cordial welcome, and be 
amused and gratified while they pleased to remain. 
He was regarded by the young as a father, and by 
the old as a friend, with whom they felt no reserve, 
and need be under no restraint. He found it im- 
possible to pursue the plan adopted by his prede- 
cessor, in relation to visits ; and appropriated one 
evening in each week for the reception of company 
of both sexes. 

Mrs. Madison seemed to have been qualified by 
nature for the situation she held. Her person was 
dignified and majestic ; perhaps a little too einhon- 
point, fond of society, easy and affable in her 
manners, and humane and generous in her dispo- 
sition. She spared no pains to please all who, 
might visit her; and all were pleased, from the 
most exalted to the most humble. She had a 
peculiar tact in ingratiating herself into the good 
opinion of her visitors, who never failed to admire. 



MADISON. 1^ 

as much as they loved her. There was nothing in 
her manner that looked like condescension, or 
bordered on haughtiness ; every thing she did had 
the appearance of real kindness, and seemed to 
spring from a sincere desire to oblige and to gratify 
those who eame to see her. To strangers, and 
such as discovered any degree of diffidence and 
awkwardness, she was particularly assiduous in her 
attentions, and soon made them feel perfectly at 
ease. She never sat, but always moved about the 
rooms from one group to another, and employed 
herself in entertaining the company in every pos- 
sible variety of manner. Her memory was so tena- 
cious, that after a single introduction she could, 
like Cato, name every gentleman and lady that 
had been introduced to her ; and strangers have 
often been surprised at the facility with which she 
could address them by name, when they had no 
expectation of being known. Her feelings, like 
those of her husband, were altogether republican; 
and if she made any distinction at all, it was always 
in favor of such as were in the more humble walks 
of life, and might thus think themselves overlook- 
ed or neglected. 

Mr. Madison is now withdrawn from the stage 
of public life, and emphatically enjoys, in his ele- 
gant retirement, the otium cum dignitate, respected 
by his countrymen, and beloved and honored by 
his neighbors. Like Themistocles, in Metastasio, 
when the close of life approaches he can say : 
2* 



j^4 MONROE. 

Sia luminoso il fine 

Del viver mio ; qual moribonda face 

Scintellando s'estingua — 

. — Ardito spiri 

Chi puo senza rossore 

Kamraentar come visse allor che muore. 



JAMES MONROE.* 

I had yesterday the honor of an introductioii 
to Mr. Monroe, the present Chief Magistrate of 
the United States. '' It is seldom," says Dr. John- 
son, " that we find men or places such as we ex- 
pect to find them ;" and I must confess that, in the 
present instance, the truth of this observation has 
been realized. I found Mr. Monroe a little differ- 
ent from what my fancy had pictured him, but 
neither a Lilliputian nor a Patagonian. He ap- 
pears to be between fifty and sixty years of age, 
with a form above the middle size, compact, mus- 
cular, and indicating a constitution of considerable 
hardiness and vigor ; his countenance exhibits 
lineaments of great severity, and seems as if it had 
been seldom irradiated by the rays of joy, or soft- 
ened by the touch of sensibility ; he does smile, 
however, but not like Shakspeare's Cassius, 

■ ■ " in such a sort 

As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit 
That could be moved to smile at any thing." 

* Tlie above and several of the following Sketches are 
principally taken from the " Letters from Washington," pub- 
lished in 1818, and written in the character of an English no« 
bleman. 



MONROE. 1^ 

At these moments, there is a benignity and suavity 
in him, that invite confidence and repel suspicion. 
He is rather awkward inliis address, for a man who 
has mingled so much in polite society ; and his 
manners and habiliments are more those of a plain 
country gentleman, than an accomplished states- 
man or a profound politician. Awkwardness of 
manners, however, seems to be more common 
among the Americans, than I had conceived. Their 
most eminent men are, I think, deficient in that 
ease, elegance, and grace, which distinguish the 
prominent political characters of France and Eng- 
land. The nature of their government has a ten- 
dency to beget this, by preventing those sacrifices 
to the graces, which are made in the more refined 
and polished nations of Europe. The importance 
and magnitude of their pursuits, and their general 
association with what we call the lower ranks of 
society, preclude the acquisition of those exterior 
embellishments so industriously cultivated by our 
countrymen. A disciple of Chesterfield, with all 
his refinement and fascination, would be regarded 
in this country as a mere petit maitre, calculated 
only to charm the eye and to fascinate the heart of 
female ignorance. But I have wandered from my 
subject. Mr. Monroe is attached to what was once 
denominated the republican party ; for at present 
all party distinctions seem to be lost, and the 
parties themselves wholly amalgamated. In his 
political career, he has manifested the most un- 
impeachable and unbending integrity, and though 



16 MONROE. 

long before the public, has seldom failed to meet 
the expectations and to gratify the wishes of the 
people. That he possesses ambition, will not be 
denied ; but his ambition is limited to the attain- 
ment of excellence and distinction within the 
bounds of patriotism and honor. If he has not the 
unbending sternness of Cato, he has the more pleas- 
ing and benignant integrity of Fabricius. 

Mr. Monroe entered early into public life, and 
has performed the various and complicated duties of 
a soldier, a politician, and a statesman. His mind 
has been accustomed to dwell on the nature of 
governments and the revolutions of empires ; sub- 
jects so vast produce a correspondent enlargement 
of intellect and sweep of comprehension. The 
mind which is occupied in trifles will not be apt to 
amaze by its greatness, or astonish by its magnifi- 
cence ; it may glitter, but will never blaze. The 
peculiar character and magnitude of Mr. Monroe's 
pursuits have withheld his attention from the minor 
and less important subjects of literature, and he is 
very far from what we should call a man of reading 
or general science. The knowledge he possesses 
has been acquired more by personal observation, 
laborious reflection, and frequent conversation, than 
by the repeated perusal of books, to which his ini- 
portant occupations would not permit him to devote 
his time. It is said his mind is neither rich nor 
brilliant, but capable of the most laborious analysis, 
and the most patient research — not hasty in its 
decisions, and not easily changed when its-<lec> 



MONROE. 17 

sions are formed. Judgment appears to have been 
his prominent intellectual feature ; and in the ex- 
amination of any object, he seldom suffered it to be 
darkened by prejudice, or warped by passion. 

The greater part of his life has been devoted to 
the business of government. He has served his 
country at home and abroad ; and has filled various 
official stations with general approbation. He was 
elevated to the chief magistracy at a period most 
propitious to his fame, and took the reins of Go- 
Ternment into his hands by the almost unanimous 
consent of the American people, who had, for some 
time, regarded him as the only surviving branch of 
the Revolutionary stock, to which they owed so 
large a debt of gratitude. The nation had just 
emerged from a short but glorious war ; the ebulli- 
tions of party feeling and political rancor had begun 
to subside, and federalism and democracy united 
in hailing him as their common friend, and the 
friend of his country. Mr. M. was less affluent 
than either of his predecessors. From the various 
employments he has held under the Government, 
he has been unable to realize more than a bare 
support for his family, and has retired into the 
shades of private life without being enriched by 
the favors of his country. Towards the close of his 
official career, he seems to have become timid, and 
dependant on those by whom he was surrounded. 
This might have been an excess of caution, but it 
indicated some want of energy and firmness, and 



18 



J. Q. ADAMS. 



exhibited the appearance of .vascillation and doubt, 
when promptness and decision were required. 

Mr. Monroe has never been blessed with male 
issue, and what is remarkable, out of the five Pre- 
eidents who have served since the organization of 
this Government, but one has had sons. I mention 
this merely as a curious circumstance. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Mr. John Q,. Adams is the son of the second 
President of the United States, and a man of great 
talent, information, and industry. Mr. Monroe, 
after his elevation to the Presidential Chair, is said 
to have discovered much sagacity in the selection 
of his cabinet council or executive officers. These 
are the Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, Navy, 
and Attorney General ; all of whom, with one ex- 
ception, possess the rare gifts of nature in no ordi- 
nary degree, and who have already rendered them- 
selves conspicuous in the walks of literature, the 
fields of eloquence, and on the theatre of politics. 

Mr. Adams has distinguished himself in the 
paths of literature and politics. The early part of 
his life seems to have been devoted to the acquisi- 
tion of general knowledge, which has been subse- 
quently augmented by travel, observation, and 
reflection. He was once attached to the party by 
whom his fether was chosen President,, but very 



J. Q. ADAMS. 



19 



soon after the republican administration came into 
power, he was ifiduced to change his opinions, and 
to abandon what might have been the prejudices of 
education, for principles which 1 have no doubt he 
conceived to be more consonant to his feelings, and 
perhaps more consistent with his ideas of liberty and 
independence. Whatever may be said as to the 
motive which produced the change, I have no 
hesitation in thinking that it originated entirely 
from principle, and that his feelings and senti- 
ments w^re more in unison with the party he 
joined, than the one he had abandoned. The con- 
duct he has since pursued has evinced the integrity 
of his motives, and the sincerity of his attachment 
to his party and his country ; and the confidence 
which that country has reposed in him, is an evi- 
dence that she also has been influenced by a simi- 
lar opinion. 

Mr. Adams is in person short, thick, and fat, 
resembling a little in his face the portrait of his 
father which you have seen, and neither very agree- 
able nor very repulsive; his head is somewhat bald, 
and his eye watery, but black and penetrating. He 
IS between fifty and sixty years of age, and seems to 
be vigorous and healthy. He is regular in his habits, 
and moral and temperate in his life. To great talent, 
he unites unceasing industry and perseverance, 
and an uncommon facility in the transaction of 
business. Though he has read much, and drank 
" deep of the Pierian spring," he seems not to 
solicit the character which literature bestows; and, 



20 J. Q. ADAMS. 

what will seem extraordinary to you, chooses rather 
to be ranked among men of business than among 
men of science. 

Mr. Adams is extremely plain and republican, 
both in his manners and dress, and labors to avoid 
alike the foolery of *' fantastic fashion," on the one 
hand, and the vulgar costume of affected eccen- 
tricity on the other. He is charitable, though for- 
mal, and possessing great warmth and ardor of 
feeling under an exterior of apparent coldness. The 
general accuracy of his judgment, and the recti- 
tude of his moral principle, always lead him to do 
what is right ; and if he err, his errors proceed 
more from the want of correct information, than 
from any improper bias, or any fixed design to do 
what is wrong. 

He is evidently well skilled in the rhetorical 
art, on which he has lectured, and in which he 
displays considerable research and ability. I 
should infer that his speeches while he was a mem- 
ber of the Senate were more correct and polished, 
if they were not more eloquent, than those of 
his coadjutors in legislation. Yet, after all, there 
is something more required to complete an orator, 
than the mere knowledge and practice of those 
principles which rhetoricians have established as 
the ground work of this art. If there be an absence 
of that peculiar kind of talent, or want of that 
peculiar enthusiasm, which propels the mind to 
embrace with ardor and delight the profession of 
an orator, the most intimate and accurate know- 



» 



J. Q. ADAMS. *^l 

ledge, or tiie most perfect dexterity in the use of 
the " rhetorician's tools," will be inadequate to 
produce excellence. And, however skilfully a man 
may round his periods and balance his sentences, 
select his phrases or direct their harmony ; without 
that ethereal and incomprehensible power which 
gives animation to matter, sweeps through nature 
like the lightning of Heaven, and creates, and em- 
bodies, and unfolds — he will still be cold, and tame, 
and spiritless ; correct indeed, but frigid, regular, 
but insensible. 

In the higher walks of eloquence, where the 
passions are excited and acted on, and the whole, 
mind wrought up to a species of phrenzy by weak- 
ening the dominion of reason, Mr. Adams did not 
excel ; but in close argumentation, in logical ana- 
lysis, in amplification and regular disposition, he 
is said to have been inferior to none. 

Mr. Adams's prominent inclination, however, 
appears to be political. To be eminent as a states- 
man is his predominant ambition ; and I doubt not 
he will attain this character from the nature of his 
mind and the tenor of his studies. Much indeed 
is required to form a statesman. He must have a 
mind that will enable him, in some degree, to re- 
move the veil of futurity; to compare the present 
with the past ; to yield to the government of reason, 
and be uninfluenced by the attractions of passion. 
'' He must comprehend," says Mirabeau,* " all the 
defects of our social existence, discern the degree of 
* Gallery of Portraits, by Mirabeau. 
3 



'^^2 J. Q. ADAMS. 

improvement of which we are susceptible, calculate 
the advantages that result from the possession of 
liberty, estimate the danger of confusion and tu- 
mult, study the art of preparing men for felicity, and 
conduct them towards perfection, by the plainest 
and most obvious paths. His survey must extend 
beyond ordinary limits; he must examine climates, 
deliberate on circumstances, and yield to events 
without suffering them to master him." 

To extensive research and general knowledge, 
Mr. A. adds great powers of observation. His 
residence as Minister at the courts of St. James 
and St. Petersburg, has enlarged his stock of facts, 
and rendered his information more correct and 
practical. He is not one of those statesmen who 
theorise when experience can afford its aid, and 
avoid the application of abstract principles, when 
plainer and more obvious ones are calculated to 
subserve the object in view. He is sedate, circum- 
spect, and cautious; reserved, but not distant; 
grave, but not repulsive. He receives, but seldom 
communicates, and discerns with great quickness, 
motives however latent, and intentions however 
concealed by the contortions of cunning, or the 
drapery of hypocrisy. This penetration seems to 
be intuitive and natural, and not the result of a 
mere acquaintance with men, or a long and inti- 
mate association with the different classes of society. 
It is the operation of native judgment, and not the 
exercise of acquired cunning. This excellence is 
common to the people of the East ; but whether it 



J. Q. ADAMS. 2!i 

originates from education, or from any peculiar 
organization of the physical powers, 1 am not suf- 
ficiently master of the theory of Ilelvetius and God- 
win to determine. Mr. Adams, it strikes me, has 
more capacity than genius ; he can comprehend 
better than he can invent ; and execute almost as 
rapidly as he can design. 

Though as a public minister, he had no great 
opportunity to display his powers, yet, from the 
little he exhibited, a judgment may be formed of 
his ability in that character. He has all the pene- 
tration, shrewdness, and perseverance, necessary 
to constitute an able diplomatist, united with the 
capacity to perceive, and the eloquence to enforce, 
what will conduce to the welfare and interests of 
his country.* 

Mr. Adams is a good writer. He evinces much 
skill and proficiency in the art of composition, with 
which he is evidently well acquainted ; and as a 
controvertist no one can surpass him in keenness, 
dexterity, and power. In short, there is no public 
character in tlie United States, that has more in- 
tellectual power, the moral inclination to be more 
useful, or that will labor with greater assiduity to 
discharge the important duties he owes to himself 
and to the nation. 

While he occupied the Presidential chair, he 
discovered the depth, coolness, penetration, and 
ability of the statesman ; bending his whole mind 
to those great measures which must form the basis 

* See his correspondence with Don Onis, the Spanish 
Minister. 



24 



J. Q. ADAMS. 



of the glory and welfare of his country, and devot- 
ing its energies to the promotion of that enlight- 
ened and liberal policy which will alone give pros- 
perity and happiness to the American people. Sur- 
rounded as he was by men of genius, intelligence, 
and experience, and stimulated by a high sense of 
duty, and animated by the warm impulse of patri- 
otism, his administration of the Government will 
be regarded by posterity as one that will rank, in 
wisdom, efficiency, and glory, with any that the 
pen of the Historian of America may yet have to 
record. 

Mr. Adams has now likewise passed off the stage 
of public life, and withdrawn into the shades of re- 
tirementjWhere, with the consciousness of rectitude, 
and the lofty conviction that he has done his duty to 
his country and to society, he will enjoy more unmin- 
gled and durable happiness than when surrounded 
by the trappings of power, and wielding all the pa- 
tronage of Government. He has now become the 
subject of history ; and posterity will, upon a dis- 
passionate review of his character and actions, 
render him that justice which some of his contem- 
poraries seem inclined to withhold. Merit is not 
always the criterion of popular approbation in re- 
publics, more than in monarchies; and the example 
of Mr, Adams will show, that Aristides was not the 
only one that has been banished for being just. In 
the fury of party conflicts, the mind is apt to be 
warped by prejudice, or blinded by passion ; and 
the most gifted and worthy is often, in the struggle 



CRAWFORD. 25 

for ascendancy, cast aside to make way for the 
idol of the moment. It is not till after lime has 
assuaged the bitterness of feeling, or softened down 
the rancor of party animosity, that the mind can 
release itself from the infatuation which has warp- 
ed, or the blindness which has darkened it. Then, 
and only then, will the errors of judgment be per- 
ceived and acknowledged, and the award rendered 
to worth, virtue, and talent, which they have me- 
rited. Of Mr. Adams it may be truly said, in the 
language of the French poet : 

Etre vrai, juste, bon, c'est son systeme unique, 
Humble dans le bonheur, grand dans I'adversite, 
Dans la seule vertu trouvant Ja volupte. 

Destouches. 



WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.* 

Mr. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, is the 
same gentleman to whom you were introduced at 
Paris, and though he possesses great dignity, wants 
the graceful elegance of manners of which I have 
previously spoken. What he was thought of in 
France I cannot inform you ; but it is impossible 
he could have succeeded amidst the polite and 
splendid frippery of the Parisian circles — the court- 
ly nonsense and graceful and elegant nonchalance 
of a French politician, must have been strikingly 
and ludicrously contrasted by the republican sim- 
plicity and awkward movements of the Americaiii 

* From Letters from Washington. 

3* 



^6 



CRAWFORD. 



Minister. Mr. Crawford has risen from obscurity 
to the situation he now holds, by the force of native 
genius. It appears he was employed in his early 
life in an occupation which is now unfortunately 
too much degraded, but which ought to be more 
highly esteemed. I mean that of " teaching the 
young idea how to shoot." His next career was at 
the bar, at which he rapidly acquired both emolu- 
ment and reputation. The excellence of his under- 
standing, and the superiority of his intellect, soon 
brought him into public life, where he displayed to 
advantage those powers with which nature had so 
eminently gifted him. He became Ambassador to 
France, and while in that capacity, was appointed 
Secretary of War, and lastly chosen Minister of 
Finance. In all these various situations, he has 
never failed to discover the same powers and ener- 
gies of mind, and the same acuteness and depth of 
penetration : he has literally the mens sana in cor- 
porc sano, and the vigorous and athletic appearance 
of his body serves as an unerring index to the force 
and energy of his intellect. It is invidious to make 
comparisons; but it is by comparisons we are often 
enabled to arrive at truth. I will therefore endea- 
vor to draw a parallel between two of the gentlemen 
of whom I have been speaking. Mr. Monroe and Mr. 
Crawford are alike distinguished by integrity of 
understanding ; but the latter has more quickness, 
and perhaps equal range of mind. In the speci- 
mens of parliamentary eloquence, which are, for 
the most part, preserved here only in the ephemeral 



CRAWFORD. 27 

and fugitive columns of newspapers, and whicli I 
have takep tlie trouble to examine for my own 
amusement, Mr. Crawford evinces some vigor of 
imagination, and occasionally some brilliancy of 
thought.* Mr. Monroe's compositions display only 
the soundness of his judgment, and the excellence 
of his sense, without any of the frippery and fas- 
tooning of rhetoric, or the meretricious and gaudy 
drapery of imagination. Mr. Monroe had more 
practical knowledge, but was less prompt in his 
decisions. Mr. Crawford had greater powers of 
invention, but was less skilful in combination. Mr. 
Monroe had more experience, but Mr. Crawford, 
from a better memory and a superior quickness of 
comprehension, had treasured up as many results, 
and acquired as many facts. Mr. Monroe's know- 
ledge of mankind was more correct and more 
practical, but he wanted Mr. Crawford's energy to 
render it extensively useful. In political shrewd- 
ness and moral integrity, they were supposed to be 
nearly equal. With this brief parallel, I shall dis- 
miss these gentlemen, and proceed, at your desire, 
to sketch the portraits of the Secretary of War and 
the Attorney General. 

* Since the above was written, Messrs. Gales «Jb Seaton 
have published three volumes of Congressional Debate?. 



''^ CALHOUN. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

Mr. Calhoun* is a young man of about thirty-five 
years of age : his form is above the middle size, but 
meagre, bony, and slender : his face wants beauty, 
but his eye possesses all the brilliancy and fire of 
genius. He is a native of the South, and has, I 
understand, been educated for the bar. It is not my 
intention to enter into any abstract speculations on 
the influence of climate upon the human intellect. 
On this subject much ingenuity and learning have 
been wasted, and the visionary theories of Buffon, 
Raynal, &.c. have been laid aside, as the lumber of 
the schools, or the idle sportings of fancy ; but it 
has always appeared to me that some climates are 
more propitious to genius, and the rapid develop- 
ment of the intellectual powers, than others. The 
soft and voluptuous climate of Ionia, for example, 
is better adapted to nourish and expand the genius 
of man, than the inclement blasts and " thick Boe- 
tian air" of Northern latitudes? Be this, however, 
as it may; whether Mr. Calhoun be indebted to 
climate, to nature, or to circumstances, for the 
powers he possesses, he is unquestionably an ex- 
traordnary young man. He started up, on the the- 
atre of legislation, a political Roscius, and astonish- 
ed the veterans around him by the power of his 
mind, and the singularity and resistlessness of his 
eloquence. He has the ingenuity without the so- 
* Written in 1817-'18. 



CALHOUN. -9 

phistry of Oodwin, to whose mind I think his bears 
some analogy.* On all subjects, whether abstract 
or ordinary, whether political or moral, he thinks 
with a rapidity that no difficulties can resist, and 
with an originality that never fails to delight. He 
has the brilliancy t without the ornament of Burke, 
the fire without the literature of Pitt. With an 
invention which never abandons him, and whose 
fertility astonishes, he seems to loathe the parade 
of rhetoric, and the glitter and decorations of art. 
His style of eloquence is peculiar and extraordina- 
ry ; without any apparent pageantry of imagination, 
or any of the flower-woven beauties of language, 
he seizes on the mind, which, like the unfortunate 
bird under the influence of fascination, becomes 
passive and obedient to the power it neither can 
nor wishes to resist. In the " tempest and whirl- 
wind" of his eloquence, his argumentation is so 
rapid, his thoughts are so novel, and his conclu- 
sions so unexpected, yet apparently correct, that you 
can neither anticipate nor think ; the attention is 
riveted, and the mind occupied alone with the sub- 
ject which he is handling, and it is not until the 
fascination of his manner has subsided that you feel 
inclined to reason, or become capable of detecting 
his errors. Even then, his witchery lingers on the 
imagination, and casts a veil over the judgment 
which it cannot immediately remove, and which, 

* Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Godwin are alike conspicuous for 
what I call ingenuity, as contradistinguished from imagina- 
tion. 

t Brilliancy is here appUed to genius. 



3^ CALHOUN. 

in opposition to the strongest efforts, tends to ob- 
scure its perceptions, and to weaken its energies. 
I have heard gentlemen who were associated with 
him declare, that when he spoke, they were, for 
some time after he had closed, unjtble to remove 
the spell by which they were bound ; and that even 
by condensing almost to obscurity, they could not 
answer the whole of his numerous arguments and 
ingenious deductions, without occupying too much 
of the time of the House. And yet, he has never 
been known to attempt but one rhetorical flourish, 
and in that he unfortunately failed. His oratorical 
style has none of the embellishments of art, or the 
witcheries of fancy ; but is, almost to dryness, plain, 
unadorned, and concise. He has nothing in him 
poetical ; his creations are not those of imagination, 
in which I think he is somewhat deficient. You 
never see him employed in weaving garlands, or 
strewing flowers on your path ; he never strives to 
" lap in Elysium," or to delight in the rainbow co- 
lors and eractic blaze of fancy. His light is the 
light of reason, clear, unrefracted and luminous. 

Between oratory and poetry, there is, I conceive, 
an essential difference. Conviction is the object of 
the orator, and pleasure that of the poet. The 
powers of mind necessary to produce those differ- 
ent results are not the same : reason governs the 
one, and imagination the other. The former is 
confined to argument and truth, the latter to image- 
ry and sentiment. The orator analyzes and rea- 



CALHOUN. 31 

; sons, compares and deduces ; the poet combines 

and imitates : 

^' His eye in a fine phrenzy rollina;, 

Doth glance from Heaven to earth, from earth to Heaven," 

and embodies forth the forms of things unknown. 
The orator must exist in the living worhl ; the poet 
may live in a world of his own creation. Memory 
and judgment are the powers employed by the for- 
mer; imagination and invention, those exercised by 
the latter. In moving the heart and exciting the 
passions, they differ only in the means employed to 
produce this effect ; and in this alone they approx- 
imate. The examples are numerous to establish 
the correctness of these positions. Cicero was a 
great orator, but a bad poet ; Pope was a great 
poet, but a bad orator. In short, oratory and po- 
etry have never been united in one individual. But, 
to return. With all the excellencies I have men- 
tioned, Mr. Calhoun has some great faults ; " z7 ?i' 
apparticnty^ says the duke de la Rochefocault, 
" qu'aux grands komtnes d'avoir desgrands defauts.^^ 
He wants, I think, consistency and perseverance 
of mind, and seems incapable of long continued 
and patient investigation. What he does not see 
at the first examination, he seldom takes pains to 
search for ; but still the lightning glance of his 
mind, and the rapidity with which he arralyzes, 
never fails to furnish him with all that may be ne- 
cessary for his immediate purposes. In his legis- 
lative career, which, though short, was uncommon- 
ly brilliant, his love of novelty, and his apparent 



^2 CALHOUN. 

solicitude to astonish were so great, that he has oc- 
casionally been known to attempt to realize the 
dreams of political visionaries, and to propose 
schemes which he seemed to offer merely for the 
purpose of displaying the affluence and fertility of 
his mind. Youth, and the necessary want of ex- 
perience, may be plead as an apology for these 
eccentricities of conduct, and apparent aberrations. 
The wisdom of age, and a more correct and ex- 
tensive acquaintance with men and things, will 
doubtless allay the ardor of his mind, and lessen 
the fervor of his temperament. 

Like our eccentric countryman, Darwin, he is 
capable of broaching new theories, but wants the 
persevering investigation, tension of thought, and 
patience of judgment, necessary to bring them to 
maturity, or to render them beneficial. Men like 
these arc often both very serviceable and injurious 
to society. In such a body as the Congress of the 
United States, where the concentrated wisdom of 
the nation is assembled, such a man's sphere of 
usefulness cannot be correctly ascertained or de- 
fined. Amidst the variety of schemes his ingenu- 
ity suggests, and his restless emulation urges him 
to propose, many will no doubt be found to be 
practicable ; and though he cannot himself pause 
to mature them, the mass of mind by which he is 
surrounded, and on which he blazes, will reduce 
them to shape, and give to his ingenious novelties 
*' a local habitation and a name." In short, Mr. 
Calhoun is one of those beings whom you can only 



CALHOUN. 3'J 

trace like the comet, by the light which he casts 
upon his path, or the blaze whicli he leaves in his 
train. He now fills the office of Vice President of 
the United States, to which he has been elevated 
by the voice of his countrymen, and which he has 
held for nearly six years. This should gratify the 
ambition of so young a man ; but ambition, when 
once fired, is not easily controlled or repressed; 
and the mind bounds forward in its desires, till the 
goal is attained which has been so long held in 
contemplation. The course pursued by Mr. Cal- 
houn is not one, however, which is likely to crown 
his hopes with success, or to raise him to that rank 
to which his ambition has so long aspired. What- 
ever may be his genius, or the versatility and extent 
of his talents, he has, as yet, done nothing in the 
walks of public life, which would entitle him to 
the high station at which he aims. His principles, 
so far as they have been developed , are not such as 
would harmonize with those of the great majority 
of his countrymen, and his political views do not 
seem calculated to promote the true interests of 
his country. If these be the result of deliberate 
reflection, and are to form the basis of his future 
conduct, he may yet have cause to lament his errors, 
and be constrained to admit that restless ambition 
does not constitute a statesman, and that success- 
ful intrigue does not indicate a man qualified to 
wield the destinies of a nation. The ruler of a 
free people, should be one in whom a cool and dis- 
criminating judgment is united to great patriotism 
4 



34 



CLAY. 



and virtue ; one whose mind is too elevated and 
expanded to dabble in the mire of party intrigue, or 
lose itself in the mazes of political contrivance; one 
who can proudly say — 

I primi oggetti 



Sian de vostri pensieri 

L'onor, la Patria, e quel dovere a cui 

Vi chiameran gli Dei. — Metes. 

Brilliancy may dazzle and delight, but it may 
also be worthless and deceptive. The meteor is 
sometimes mistaken for a star, and it often hap- 
pens — 

Che tra in fiori, e le fronde 

Pur Ig serpe si asconde, e s'aggira. 



HENRY CLAY.* 

I shall now introduce you to the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, Mr. Clay, who is a 
delegate from Kentucky, and who not long ago 
flourished, you will recollect, as one of the Ame- 
rican commissioners at Ghent. He is a tall, thin, 
and not very musculous man ; his gate is stately, 
but swinging, and his countenance strikingly indi- 
cative of genius. As an orator, Mr. Clay stands 
deservedly high in the estimation of his country- 
men. His eloquence is impetuous and vehement ; 
it rolls like a torrent, but like a torrent which is 

* Written principally in 1817. 



CLAY. 35 

sometimes irregular and occasionally obstructed ; 
though there is a want of rapidity awd fluency in 
his elocution, yet he has a great deal of fire and 
vigor iM his expression. When he speaks, he is 
full of animation and earnestness, his face bright- 
ens, his eye beams with additional lustre, and his 
whole figure indicates that he is entirely occupied 
with the subject on which his eloquence is employ- 
ed. Mr. Clay does not seem to have studied rhe- 
toric as an art, or to have paid much attention to 
those artificial divisions and rhetorical graces and 
ornaments, on which the orators of antiquity so 
strongly insist. Indeed, oratory, as an art, is but 
seldom studied in this country. Public speakers 
here trust almost entirely to the efficacy of their 
own native powers for success, in the different 
fields of eloquence, and seek not after the extrinsic 
embellishments and facilities of art. It is but rarely 
that they unite the Attic and Rhodian manner, 
\and still more rarely that they devote their atten- 
tion to the acquisition of those accomplishments 
which were, in the refined ages of Greece and 
Rome, considered as so essential to the completion 
of an orator Mr. Clay, however, is one the most 
eloquent speakers of this country, and never fails 
to produce pleasure as well as conviction. His 
mind is so organized, that he overcomes the diffi- 
culties of the most abstruse and complicated sub- 
jects, apparently without the toil of investigation 
or the labor of research. It is rich, and active, and 
rapid, grasping at one glance connexions the most 



m 



CLAY. 



tlistant, and consequences the most remote, and 
breaking down with infinite facility the trammels 
of error, and the cobwebs of sophistry. When he 
rises to speak, he always commands attention, and 
almost always satisfies the mind on which his elo- 
quence is intended to operate. The fine intona- 
tions of his voice, his commanding person and 
appropriate action, give a powerful effect to all he 
says. In these physical graces, he has few equals 
among his contemporaries. Mr. Clay's mind is too 
affluent and vigorous to indulge in mere declama- 
tion, or to seek after sparkling conceits or tinsel 
ornaments ; and hence, we find in his parliament- 
ary and forensic efforts no labored attempts at effect 
— nothing like clap-traps — no passages suited for 
school-boy recitations — no splendid, but idle pic- 
tures of imagination, intended merely to please 
without satisfying the mind. They present a solid 
and unshaken column of argument — a constant 
series of logical deductions — a resistless and con- 
centrated mass of thought, based on the immutable 
principles of truth, and irradiated by the blaze of 
genius. They exhibit the unbroken energies of an 
intellect in its vigorous maturity, throwing aside 
the darkness of error, casting its brilliant cor- 
ruscations on the path along which it rushes, and 
penetrating, with the power of intuition, the secret 
and hidden motives of human action. The warmth 
and fervor of his feelings, and the natural impetu- 
osity of his character, do not often lead him to the 
adoption of opinions which are inconsistent with 



CLAY. ^' 

the dictates of true policy and wisdom. In all he 
does he is propelled by a love of country ; and 
though solicitous of distinction, he wishes to attain 
the pinnacle of greatness without infringing the 
liberties, or marring the prosperity of that land of 
which it seems to be his glory to be a native. 

The prominent traits of Mr. Clay's mind are, 
quickness, penetration and acuteness ; a fertile in- 
vention, discriminating judgment, and good memo- 
ry. His attention does not seem to have been much 
devoted to literary or scientific pursuits, unconnect- 
ed with his profession ; but, fertile in resources, 
and abounding in expedients, he is seldom at a 
loss, and if he is not at all times able to amplify and 
embellish, he never fails to do justice to the subject 
which has called forth his eloquence. In short, 
Mr. Clay has been gifted by nature with great 
intellectual superiority, which will always give him 
a decided influence in whatever sphere it may be 
his destiny to revolve. 

Mr. Clay's manners are plain and easy ; he has 
nothing in him of that reserve which checks con- 
fidence, and which some politicians assume ; his 
views of mankind are enlarged and liberal, and his 
conduct as a politician and a statesman has beea 
marked with the same enlarged and liberal policy. 
His views are the views of a statesman, profound, 
expansive, and luminous. He has applied his 
mind with intensity to the great sources of national 
prosperity and happiness ; and though, in bringing 
item into action, and applying them to the condi- 
4 * 



38 CLAY. 

tion of his country, he has been opposed by preju- 
dice and resisted by ignorance, the convictions of 
his judgment and the ardor of his patriotism have 
led him to persevere, till the accomplishment of 
his labors is no longer visionary or distant. The 
debt of gratitude which his country owes him, pos- 
terity will be able to appreciate. The result of his 
wisdom will then be unfolded, and the countless 
blessings which will flow from it will be felt and 
enjoyed by millions yet unborn. Though educated 
for the bar, and obliged to practise law as a pro- 
fession, nature seems to have intended him for a 
statesman. With great genius, he is yet a man of 
business ; par negotiis neque supra erat. Though 
occupied with subjects almost co-extensive in im- 
portance with the universe, he still descends to the 
little details of official duty, and the ordinary busi- 
ness of the world. He is prompt in his decisions, 
and active and fearless in the execution of his de- 
signs ; stooping to no meanness, and retarded by 
no dread of consequences, in the performance of 
what he feels to be his duty, or what he conceives 
will conduce to the interests of his country ; ardent 
in his attachments, and although open, yet generous 
in his enmities. He possesses a nobleness of sen- 
timent, a loftiness of soul, and a grandeur of inten- 
tion, which mingle in whatever he says or whatever 
he does, and which give him, in all his connexions 
with society, an influence and standing that it is 
difiicult to resist. His motto always has been — 
La patria e un Nume 



A f\n sacrificar tutto e permesso. Metes. 



CLAY. 39 

He is precisely the man I should select to exhibit 
to the European world as a fine specimen of the 
American character ; bold, enterprising, independ- 
ent and persevering, with a genius that shrinks at 
no impediments, and a mind that quails at the as- 
pect of no danger. Emerging from obscurity and 
indigence, and rising by rapid gradations to the 
rank of an orator, legislator, minister and states- 
man, he is the same in all, and in all displays that 
versatility and power which are the characteristics 
of genius. St. Pierre has said that genius is the 
art of observation ; but it requires genius to observe. 
Mr. Clay has been a close and accurate observer 
of men and things, and has suffered nothing to es- 
cape him which could add to the inexhaustible re- 
sources of his mind. His knowledge of men has 
not been derived from books, but from a long in- 
tercourse with the living world, in which he has 
mingled as much from necessity as choice. The 
various scenes through which he has passed, has 
enabled him to see and study the diversified char- 
acter of his species, and to comprehend the influ- 
ences under which they act, and the motives and 
principles by which they are governed. His de- 
votion to the cause of liberty has been manifested 
in every act of his life. The spread of universal 
freedom seems to be the first and strongest impulse 
of his heart, and whether she flaps her wings over 
the Cordilleras of America, or reposes on the clas- 
sic plains or delicious valleys of Greece, she has 
always met in him a friend that no casualty could 



40 CLAY. 

alter, and no personal interest could change. He 
wielded an almost magic power over a legislative 
body, and exercises nearly the same fascination 
over those who come within the range of its influ- 
ence. But this is the ascendancy of genius — the 
sway of mind, which, like the rarified air, will rise 
above the denser atmosphere that surrounds it. — 
There are in Mr. Clay's manners so total an ab- 
sence of all hauteur, so much apparent candor, and 
such an evidence of open-heartedness, that no one 
can refuse him his confidence when he becomes ac- 
quainted with him. There is nothing of aristocra- 
cy lurking in his heart, and as little of that con- 
temptible pride which will not stoop to notice the 
lowly and humble, though meritorious and worthy, 
because they are not decorated with the trappings 
of power, or surrounded by the glitter of wealth. — 
No man has, however, been more the object of ca- 
lumny and vituperation than this distinguished 
statesman. But this seems to be the lot of all who, 
in this country, have reached political eminence ; 
and to this painful ordeal must every one be sub- 
jected who desires to wing his flight to the temple 
of political fame. 



WIRT. 41 



WILLIAM WIRT.* 

I will now bring before you another prominent 
personage, who figures in this government, and of 
whom you have requested me to give you some ac- 
count. Mr. Wirt, the attorney general of the Unit- 
ed States, has distinguished himself by his literary 
and forensic labors. In his person, he is more at- 
tractive and elegant, and in his manners more 
graceful and easy, than some of the gentlemen I 
have mentioned. Mr. Wirt is a native of Mary- 
land, and, like Socrates, owes his being to parents 
who existed in the humbler walks of like. With- 
out a regular or academic education, without pa- 
tronage, and without influential and powerful con- 
nexions, he has made his way through the difficul- 
ties by which he was surrounded, to the high sphere 
in which he now revolves. His example furnishes 
another evidence of the excellence of this govern- 
ment, which opens so easy a path to genius, indus- 
try, and exertion. Mr. Wirt, in his youth, was dis- 
tinguished by a brilliant and romantic fancy, and a 
facility in the acquisition of knowledge. At the 
death of his father, he was left under the guardian- 
ship of a gentleman in the State of Maryland, who 
is said to have been well versed in the Greek and 
Latin languages, in which he was so good as to 
instruct his ward. In a few years the guardian 
paid the debt of nature, and left his young charge 

* Written in 1817. 



42 WIRT. 

to buffet the storms of life as he could. The death 
of Dr. Hunt not only deprived Wirt, but the neigh- 
borhood, of a good teacher, and an excellent friend, 
and the loss was deemed irreparable, unless sup- 
plied by Wirt himself, who had made no inconsi- 
derable proficiency in the dead languages and other 
branches of knowledge, and who, as he was now 
without fortune, and destitute of other means of 
support, consented to officiate as a preceptor. In 
this situation he continued only until he had made 
himself acquainted with the principles of the legal 
science, under the direction of Judge Edwards, 
with whom he had formed an acquaintance, and in 
whose house he boarded for the benefit of his in- 
struction. Being now prepared for the practice of 
the law, but entirely destitute of funds, a neighbor 
and a friend furnished him with a horse, and mo- 
ney enough to enable him to proceed to Fauquier, 
in Virginia, his point of destination, where he 
took up his residence, and commenced the practice 
of his profession. He had not been long at the 
bar before he entered into the connubial state, and 
became the husband of a respectable young lady 
of the county in which he resided. 

I have been informed that soon after this, he 
was prevailed upon to accompany a friend to the 
rustic church of the divine he so eloquently and 
poetically describes in his " Spy." He entered 
and took his seat ; he neither noticed the congre- 
gation nor the sightless Demosthenes that address- 
ed him, and was fast sinking into the arms of the 



WIRT. 43 

drowsy deity, when instinctively, and with an im- 
pulse he could neitiier control nor repress, he start- 
ed from the bench on which he sat, as it" struck by 
electricity, and gave his whole attention to the dis- 
course of the preacher, whose bursts of eloquence 
had thus roused him from his stupor and ri vetted 
his every faculty as if by enchantment. What 
moral etFect the eloquence of Doctor Waddell had 
upon Mr. Wirt, I am not able to say, but it is cer- 
tain, that soon after this event he removed to 
Richmond, where he underwent a change in his 
religious opinions, and was chosen by the then 
governor of the State, Mr. Monroe, one of his 
privy counsellors. From that epoch he rose ra- 
pidly in his profession, and in the estimation of 
the public. His " Spy" gave him a reputation 
which his eloquence at the bar tended to establish, 
and the fortune and respectability of the lady to 
whom he is now united, enlarged the circle of his 
friends, and extended his sphere of action. While 
engaged in the practice of the law at Richmond, 
he employed his leisure in the composition of a 
work entitled " The Old Bachelor," which was 
published in numbers, after the manner of the 
Spectator, and which displays the taste and talent 
of the author. He has more recently endeavored 
to add to the just fame he has acquired, by 
preparing for the press a life of Patrick Henry, 
whose eloquence cannot be admired too much, 
and whose character he has, on all occasions, 
been fond of portraying. As an evidence of 



44 WIRT. 

the respect in which he was held by his adopted 
State, the vacant situation of senator of the United 
States was offered him by the legislature of Virgi- 
nia, but he refused to accept it. Since that, he has 
been elevated by the President to the post of Attor- 
ney General of the U. States,* which I presume is 
more congenial to his feelings, as it doubtless is 
more consistent with those professional pursuits and 
studies, to which he has been for many years assidu- 
ously devoted. I must now beg leave to close this 
rapid biographical outline. As an apology for its 
defects, I have nothing to offer. The facts it con- 
tains have been furnished me by those who have 
been long and intimately acquainted with Mr. Wirt, 
and I flatter myself, that notwithstanding its bre- 
vity and imperfections, it will be read with some 
little interest. 

Of the literary productions of Mr. Wirt, the ge- 
neral character is brilliancy of coloring, redundan- 
cy of rhetorical embellishment, and a fondness for 
poetical imagery. The characteristic feature of 
his mind is fancy, the too free indulgence of which 
leads him into occasional hyperboles, not always 
consistent with the sober dictates of sound sense, 
or the canons of correct taste. The remarks which 
Johnson applies to Collins, may be, I think, not 
inaptly applied to the subject of these observations. 
" He loves fairies, genii, giants, and monsters ; he 

* This situation he held till the recent change in the Ad- 
ministration induced him to throw up his commission and 
remove to Baltimore, where he employs himself more profit- 
ably in private practice. 



WIRT. 4ii 

delights to rove through the meanders of ciicliant- 
ment, to gaze on the magnificence of gohlen pa- 
laces, and to repose by the water-falls of Eiysian 
gardens."* Mr. Wirt does not seem to search for 
imagery, or to labor after the splendid but fugitive 
coloring of fancy. From the native fertility of his 
imagination, this is rendered unnecessary, and new 
creations spring up in his mind, which are as strik- 
ing as they are unexpected and beautiful. There is 
a want of classical simplicity, however, in his ear- 
lier compositions, which can only be imputed to his 
occasional love of splendor, and fondness for poetical 
embellishment. The subjects in which he most 
excels, and in which he displays the best specimens 
of his style of writing, are those of elocution and 
oratory, which may be found interspersed through- 
out all his literary works. His style of speaking 
bears a strong affinity to his style of writing, and 
blazes not unfrequently with the «ffulgence of Cur- 
ranian eloquence ; but the splendor of Curran is 
chiefly calculated for the modern rostrum ; and at 
the bar, in the pulpit, or the senate, may sparkle 
on the fancy, without deeply affecting the heart, 
and play around the imagination without rousing 
the feelings or convincing the judgment. 

But whatever were the errors into which Mr. 
Wirt may have fallen, at the commencement of his 
oratorical career, from false imitation or a bril- 
liant fancy, his good sense has since enabled him 
to shun them, and to adopt a more chaste, correct, 
* Dr. Johnson's Life of Collins. 



46 



WIRT. 



and polished style of speaking and writing.- As 
you have never had an opportunity of seeing any 
of his speeches, I will send you a few extracts from 
one of his specimens of oratory, in the case of 
Aaron Burr, who was tried, some years ago, for 
treason. The orator, after describing the character 
of Burr, proceeds to give the following picture of 
Blannerhasset, an Irishman, who had come to 
this country to avoid what he called persecution, 
and who had retired to a beautiful island in the 
Ohio : " But he carried with him," says Mr. Wirt, 
"taste, science, and wealth, and 'lo! the desert 
smiled.' Possessing himself of a beautiful island 
in the Ohio, he rears upon it a palace, and deco- 
rates it with every romantic embellishment of fancy. 
A shrubbery that Shenstone might have envied 
blooms around him ; music that might have charm- 
ed Calypso and her nymphs, is his ; an extensive 
library spreads its treasures before him ; a philoso- 
phical apparatus offers to him all the secrets and 
mysteries of nature ; peace, trnnquillity, and in- 
nocence shed their mingled delights around him, 
and to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, 
who is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and 
graced with every accomplislnuent that can render 
it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and 
made him the father of her children. In the midst 
of all this peace, this innocence, this tranquillity, 
this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the 
heart, the destroyer comes ; he comes to turn this 
paradise into hell ; yet the flowers do not wither at 



WIRT. 4< 

his approach, and no monitory shudderino; ihroufrh 
thcbosomof their unfortunate possessor, warns him 
of the ruin that is coming upon him." Blanner- 
hasset is caught in the toils which the arcli traitor 
has set to ensnare him, and he becomes a willing 
accomplice in the conspiracy. The result is thus 
described by the orator : 

" No more he enjoys the tranquil scene ; it has 
become flat and insipid to his taste ; his books are 
abandoned ; his retort and crucible are thrown 
aside ; his shrubbery blooms and breathes its fra- 
grance upon the air in vain ; he likes it not ; his 
ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music ; it 
longs for the trumpet's clangor, and the cannon's 
roar ; even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, 
no longer affects him ; and the angel smile of his 
wife, which hitherto touched his bosom with ecsta- 
cy so unspeakable, is now unfelt and unseen. His 
enchanted island is destined soon to relapse into a 
desert ; and in a few months we find the tender and 
i)eautiful partner of his bosom, whom he lately 
^ permitted not the winds of summer to visit too 
roughly,' we see her shivering, at midnight, on the 
winter banks of the Ohio, and mingling her tears 
with the torrents that froze as they fell. Yet this 
unfortunate man, thus deluded from his interest 
and happiness, thus seduced from the paths of in- 
nocence and peace, thus confounded in the toils 
which were deliberately spread for him, and over- 
whelmed by the mastering spirit and genius of 
another ; this man, thus ruined and undone, and 



48 



WIRT. 



made to play a subordinate part in his grand dra- 
ma of guilt and treason ; this man is to be called 
the principal offender ; while he by whom he was 
thus plunged and steeped in misery, is compara- 
tively innocent — a mere accessary. Sir, neither 
the human heart nor the human understanding will 
bear a perversion so monstrous and absurd ; so 
shocking to the soul ; so revolting to reason." 

By comparing these passages with some of Cur- 
ran's crim. con. speeches, you will discover a strong 
similitude, and an evident imitation; though the 
American orator does not fall far short of his Irish 
prototype in picturesque effect, and in splendor of 
painting. 

Mr. Wirt is now about fifty years of age ; his 
face is full and still handsome ; his features are 
regular and well proportioned ; his eye black and 
animated ; his body large and inclined to corpu- 
lency ; and his voice still strong and well modu- 
lated. His diction is rapid and flowing, his elocu- 
tion easy and graceful, and his action neither the- 
atrical nor extravagant, but suited to the sentiment 
and adapted to the expression. As a jurist, he is 
profoundly read ; not seeking distinction in wire- 
drawn subtleties or minute and refined technicali- 
ties, but in the application of the settled and com- 
prehensive principles of jurisprudence ; studying 
it as a science, and bringing it to bear on the vari- 
ous modifications of civil and personal rights and 
wrongs. As an orator, his power is acknowledged 
and his fascination irresistible ; and as a man, he 
stands high in the scale of moral excellence 



PI.XCKNEY. 49 



WILLIAM PINCKNEY.t 

Mr. William Pinckney is a native of INIaryland. 
His parents, though indigent ttftd obscure, were yet 
animated by a strong desire of making their son 
illustrious. To effect this object, they exerted eve- 
ry effort within their power, and gave him such au 
education as their limited means would warrant. 
Mr. Pinckney was an orator by nature. When 
very young, and while speaking in a little debating 
club which had been established by some young 
men in Annapolis, to improve themselves in elo- 
cution, he excited the notice of a gentleman con- 
spicuous for his talents, who had accidentally at- 
tended the society. Mr. Chase immediately extend- 
ed to him his patronage and assistance ; and under 
the auspices of so able an instructor, and so pow- 
erful a friend, young Pinckney soon developed 
those extraordinary powers with which the benefi- 
cent hand of nature had endowed him. He studied 
the law in the office of his patron, and soon prepared 
himself for the bar, where, at his first appearance, 
he gave those promises of ability and greatness, 
which he has subsequently fulfilled. Mr. Pinckney 
has occupied some honorable and important stations 
under the American Government ; and though, in 
the discharge of his official functions, he has not 
fully realized public expectation, yet he has not 
fallen very far below it. 

+ Written in 1817. 
5* 



^0 PINCKNEY. 

Mr. Pinckney is between fifty and sixty years of 
age. His form is sufficiently elevated and com- 
pact to be graceful, and his countenance, though 
marked by the lines of dissipation, and rather too 
heavy, is not unprepossessing or repulsive. His 
eye is rapid in its motion, and beams with the 
animation of genius ; but his lips are too thick, 
and his cheeks too fleshy and loose for beauty ; 
there is, too, a degree of foppery, and sometimes 
of splendor, manifested in the decoration of his 
person, which is not perfectly reconcileable to my 
ideas of mental superiority ; and an appearance of 
voluptuousness about him which is only calculated 
to suit the meridian of Greece and the soft and 
debilitating climate of the Egean isles, but which 
cannot surely be a source of pride or of gratifica- 
tion to one whose mind is so capacious and ele- 
gant. I should imagine, however, that this cha- 
racter was barely assumed for the purpose of ex- 
citing a higher admiration of his powers, by induc- 
ing a belief that, without the labor of study, or the 
toil of investigation, he can attain the object of his 
wishes, and become eminent without deigning to 
resort to that painful drudgery by which meaner 
minds are enabled to arrive at excellence and dis- 
tinction. At the first glance, no one could believe, 
from his external appearance, that he was in the 
least degree intellectually superior to his fellow men. 
But Mr. Pinckney is indeed a wonderful man, and 
one of those beings whom the lover of human nature 
feels a delight and pride in contemplating. Hi« 



PINCKNEY. 51 

mind is, I think, of the very first order — quick, 
expanded, fervid and powerful. The hearer is at 
a loss which most to admire — the vigor of his judg- 
ment, the fertihty of his invention, the strength of 
his memory, or the power of his imagination. Each 
of these faculties he possesses in an equal degree of 
perfection, and each is displayed in its full matu- 
rity vi^hen the magnitude of the subject on which 
he descants, renders its operation necessary. This 
singular union of the rare and precious gifts of na- 
ture has received all the strength education could 
afford, and all the polish and splendor art could 
bestow. Under the cloak of dissipation and indo- 
lence, his application has been indefatigable, and 
his studies unintermitted ; the oil of the midnight 
lamp has been exhausted, and the labyrinths of 
knowledge have been explored. 

Mr. Pinckney is never unprepared and never off 
his guard ; he encounters his subject with a mind 
rich in all the gifts of nature, and fraught with all 
the resources of art and study. He enters the list 
with his antagonist armed like the ancient cavalier, 
cap a pe ; and is alike prepared to wield the lance, 
or to handle the sword, as occasion may require. 
In cases which embrace all the complications and 
intricacies of law, where reason seems to be lost in 
the ocean of technical perplexity, and obscurity and 
darkness assume the dignified character of science, 
he displays an extent of research, a range of inves- 
tigation, a lucidness of reasoning, and a fervor and 
brilliancy of thought, that excite our wonder, anji 



53 PINCKNEY. 

elicit our admiration. On the driest, most abstract, 
and uninteresting questions of law, wlien no mini 
can anticipate such an occurrence, he occasionally 
blazes forth in all the enchanting exuberance of 
a chastened, but a rich and vivid imagination, and 
paints in a manner as classical as it is splendid, 
and as polished as it is brilliant. In the higher 
walks of eloquence, where the passions and feel- 
ings of our nature are roused to action or lulled to 
repose, Mr. Pinckney is still the great magician 
whose power is resistless, and whose touch is fas- 
cination. His eloquence becomes sublime and im- 
passionate, majestic and overwhelming. In calmer 
moments, when these passions are hushed and the 
mellowness of feeling has assumed the place of 
agitation and disorder, he weaves around you the 
fairy circles of fancy, and calls up the golden 
palaces and magnificent grottoes of enchantment. 
The imagination is fired, and you seem to stroll 
amidst bovvers of roses and regions of eternal ver- 
dure, where you are fanned to repose by the breath 
of zephyrs shedding '* ambrosial sweets," and lull- 
ed to forgetfulness by the seraphic harmony of 
Elysian songsters. You listen with rapture as he 
rolls along ; his defects vanish, and you are not 
conscious of any thing but what he pleases to in- 
fuse. From his tongue, like that of Nestor, *' lan- 
guage more sweet than honey flows," and the at- 
tention is constantly riveted by the successive ope- 
ration of the different faculties of the mind. There 
are no awkward pauses, no hesitation for the want 



PINCKNEY. -y^i 

of words or of arguments ; he moves forward with 
a pace sometimes majestic, sometimes graceful, 
but always captivating and elegant. His order is 
lucid, his reasoning logical, his diction select, 
magnificent and appropriate, and his style flowing, 
- oratorical and beautiful. The most labored and 
finished composition could not be better than that 
which he seems to utter spontaneously, and with- 
out effort. His judgment, invention, memory and 
imagination, all conspire to furnish him at once 
with whatever he may require to enforce, embel- 
lish, or beautify what he says. On the dullest sub- 
ject he is never dry, and no one leaves him without 
feeling an admiration at his powers that borders on 
enthusiasm. His satire is keen, but delicate ; and 
his wit scintillating and brilliant. His treasure is 
exhaustless : — possessing the most extensive and 
varied information, he never feels at a loss ; and he 
ornaments and illustrates every subject he touches. 
He is never the same : he uses no common-place 
artifice to excite a momentary thrill of admiration ; 
he is not obliged to patch up and embellish a few 
ordinary thoughts, or set off a few meagre and un- 
interesting facts ; his resources seem to be as un- 
limited as those of nature, and fresh powers and 
new beauties are exhibited whenever his eloquence 
is employed. A singular copiousness and felicity 
of thought and expression, united to a magnificence 
of amplification and a purity and chastity of orna- 
ment, gives to his eloquence a sort of enchantment 
which it is difficult to describe. 



^4 PINCKNEY. 

Mr. Pinckney's mind is in a high degree poetical. 
It sometimes wantons in the luxuriance of its own 
creations, but these creations never violate the 
purity of classical taste and elegance. He loves to 
paint when there is no occasion to reason, and 
addresses the imagination and passions when the 
judgment has been satisfied and enlightened. 

I speak of Mr. Pinckney at present as a forensic 
orator. His career as a legislator was too short to 
afford an opportunity of judging of his parliamentary 
eloquence ; and perhaps, like Curran, he might 
have failed in a field in which it was anticipated he 
would excel, or at least retain his usual pre-emi- 
nence. Mr. Pinckney, I think, bears a stronger 
resemblance to Burke, than to Pitt ; but in some 
particulars he unites the excellencies of both. He 
has the fancy and erudition of the former, and the 
point, rapidity, and elocution of the latter. Com- 
pared with his countrymen, he wants the vigor and 
shadowy majesty of Clay, the metaphysical power 
and Ingenuity of Calhoun : but as a rhetorician he 
surpasses both. In his action, Mr. Pinckney has un- 
fortunately acquired a manner (borrowed, no doubt, 
from some illustrious model) which is far from being 
elegint. It consists in raising one leg on a bench 
or chair before him, and in thrusting his right arm 
in a horizontal line from his side, to its full length 
in front. This action is uniform, and never varies 
or changes in the most tranquil flow of sentiment, 
or the grandest burst of impassioned eloquence.^ 
His voice, though not naturally good, has been 



PINCKNiEY. 55 

disciplined to modulation by art, and if it be not 
always musical, it is never very harsh or offensive- 
Such is Mr. Pinckney as an orator. As a diploma- 
tist, but little can be said that will add to his repu- 
tation. In his official notes and communications 
there is too great a diffusircness for beauty or ele- 
gance of composition. It is but seldom the orator 
possesses the requisites of the writer, and the fame 
which is acquired by the tongue sometimes evapo- 
rates through the pen. As a writer he is inferior 
to the present Attorney General,* who unites the 
powers of both in a high degree ; and thus, in his 
own person, gives a favorable illustration of the 
position which he has laid down as to the univer- 
' sality of genius. 

So great was Mr. Pinckney's anxiety to sustain 
the reputation which he had acquired, that, though 
laboring under severe indisposition, he could not 
be prevailed upon to suspend his exertions in an 
important suit, in which he was engaged before the 
Supreme Court, till he recovered ; and in a speech 
of two days' duration, and of more than usual 
power and eloquence, he is said to have broken a 
blood vessel, and thus fell a lamented victim to the 
united impulse of duty and fame. 

Mr. Pinckney now slumbers with the dead. A 
plain tomb stone covers the body of him on whom 
listeninor Senates huno- with admiration. His ashes 
now mingle with the dust of those who once, like 
himself, occupied a large space in the public mind 

" 3Ir. Wilt. 



56 LOWNDES. 

— and, like himself, were stimulated by the love of 
fame, or animated by the glow of patriotism. While 
the eye of the melancholy wanderer who visits the 
burial ground of our City, falls upon the last resting 
place of this once gifted individual, and feels 

" The death-like silence and the dread repose" 
which reigns around, how eloquent is the language 
of Pindar : " We are shadows; and the dreams 
of shadows are all that our fancies imagine." 



WILLIAM LOWNDES.t 

Permit me now to bring before you another 
prominent member of the body I have been de- 
scribing. I know you will readily pass over the 
imperfections of his person and figure, his quixotic 
countenance, lank, lean and rueful; his tall, slen- 
der and emaciated form, and all the inelegancies 
and defects of his body, when you are informed 
that this man stands deservedly in the first rank of 
American statesmen. Mr. Lowndes, like Mr. Cal- 
houn, is from the south. He is a man of wealth and 
of probity ; modest, retiring and unambitious ; but 
his mind is vigorous, comprehensive and rapid. He 
is Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
and in that situation has discovered a profound and 
extensive knowledge of finance; a subject in itself dry 
and difficult, and to which very few of the citizens 

t Written in 1817. 



LOWNDES. 57 

of this country have devoted much of tlicir leisure. 
To Mr. Lowndes, however, it appears to be a 
branch of political science, peculiarly pieasinf^, and 
to which he is much addicted, both from niclination 
and habit. He is not only an able political econo- 
mist, but a skilful statist. And for your further infor- 
mation, I will draw the distinction in the language 
of Peuchet,* who has given it more correctly than 
any writer I have yet had the opportunity of read- 
ing. *' The first, or political economy, conceives, 
produces and puts in execution the truths or prin- 
ciples of administration, whose utility it establishes, 
by reasoning, supported by comparison of facts. 
The second, or statistics, is occupied in preparing 
the elements proper to guide the mind ; it collects 
details, which it forms into one head, and estab- 
lishes results founded upon an analysis sufficiently 
complete to produce moral certainty." 

Mr. Lowndes never takes up an opinion, or adopts 
a theory that has not been sanctioned by his own 
judgment, or that cannot bear the test of logical 
analysis. His mind possesses a mathematical tact, 
and every subject which presents itself and which 
cannot be demonstrated, is rejected or admitted 
with hesitation and doubt. In the fields of fancy 
he but seldom suffers himself to loiter ; the glitter 
of imagination neither dazzles nor delicrhts him, 
and he prefers rather to wander through the som- 
bre groves of philosophy, than to stroll amidst the 
enchanted palaces and magic haunts of fiction. 

" Statistique Elemeutaire. 
6 



^^ ' LOWNDES. 



His memory is powerful and retentive, and furnish- 
es him, in an instant, with whatever he may have 
wished to retain ; but he is no orator; his voice is 
low and feeble, his gesticulation awkward and in- 
elegant, and his whole manner unprepossessing 
and defective. What he says, however, is said 
with perspicuity and force, and can-ies with it con- 
viction to the mind. In speaking, he has no ex- 
ordiums or perorations ; he marches, like Homer, 
to the point at once, and endeavors to satisfy the 
judgment, without deigning to tickle the fancy. I 
do not con3eive that the highest powers are requir- 
ed to form an orator of the present day. It is not 
essential that he should plunge into the labyrinth 
of science, or be conversant with the intricacies of 
art. The truth is that sound sense and virtue are 
the "princijnu7n et fons'' of fine oratory, as well as 
of good writing. The orator must indeed feel the 
common interests and passions of our nature more 
intensely, to be capable of directing our prejudices, 
of controlling our will, or exciting our feelings ; but 
still his object is not always to inform, but to propel 
and stimulate the mind to action. For this purpose, 
it is sufficient that his sensibilities are acute, that his 
knowledge of mankind is accurate, and that his ac- 
quaintance with the common affiiirs and transac- 
tions of life is not more imperfect than that of those 
around him. His business is with the living world, 
and with the common feelings and passions and 
prejudices of our nature. We do not wish him to 
exhibit the philosopher or the poet ; but we wish 



LOWNDES. 'iO 

him to be always clear, luminous and persuasive ; 
not to create new worlds ; but to c uiduct us 
through the one we occupy ; not to sport in the 
rainbow, or to flutter on a moon beam ; but witli 
the torch of truth, to illumine our path and to lead 
us in safety through the darkness of error, and tlie 
obscurity of ignorance. And all this he can do 
without a mind of vast general powers or a more 
than ordinary extent of knowledge. Mr. Lowndes 
seems to be aware of his defects and does not wish 
to excel as an orator : his object is of a more ex- 
tended and comprehensive character ; his ambition 
is the ambition of virtue, and he aspires to the lofty 
and imposing elevation of a statesman and a patriot. 
The contracted views and paltry intrigues of party 
are beneath the dignity of his mind, and revolting 
to the virtues of his heart : and he labors not for 
adventitious and fleeting reputation, but for the 
permanent good and lasting glory of his country. 
When he addresses the House, every ear is atten- 
tive, lest any thing should escape, and every mind 
is satisfied, because the truths which have been ut- 
tered were recommended by the charms of virtue, 
and arrayed in the simple beauty of moral worth. 
He possesses great sensibility of heart, and great 
delicacy of feeling ; he would rather relinquish the 
exultation of triumph over his antagonist in argu- 
ment, than experience the pain of having inflicted 
a wound on his vanity. I know not for what sta- 
tion destiny has designed him, but his mind would 
qualify him for almost any thing ; he realizes the 



60 LOWNDES. 

idea which Mirabeau has formed of a statesman.— 
'^This word," says he, "presents to the mind the 
idea of a vast genius, improved by experience, ca- 
pable of embracing the mass' of social interests, 
and of perceiving how to maintain true harmony 
among the individuals of which society is compos- 
ed, and an extent of information which may give 
substance and union to the different operations of 
government."* The great talents and high stand- 
ing of Mr. Lowndes, induced the executive of 
this country to offer him the situation of Minister 
of War ; but he refused to accept it, and seems to 
be satisfied with the condition to which his constit- 
uents have elevated him, and which, I presume, he 
can retain as long as he feels inclined to do so. Of 
the private character of this gentleman, I know 
nothing ; but 1 should infer, from my short ac- 
quaintance with him, that he is as conspicuous for 
moral as for intellectual excellencies, and that in 
the humbler and less brilliant walks of domestic 
life, though he may not acquire so much reputation, 
he is still not less distinguished than in the blaze of 
political splendor. 

Mr. Lowndes lived but a few years after the 
above was penned. He paid the debt of nature 
6n his passage to Liverpool, for the benefit of his 
health, deeply lamented by his countrymen, by 
whom his memory is still fondly cherished. His 
extraordinary merit had pointed him out as one 
eminently qualified to fill the Executive Chair of hi? 
•"^ Mirabeau's Gallery of Portraits. 



KING. 61 

country ; to which, if death had not so early closed 
his career, he vvotdd most probably have been ele- 
vated. When applied to, on this subject, he made 
the following memorable reply: "It is an honor 
which is neither to be solicited nor declined." 

It is due to the memory of so distinguished a 
man, and would be useful to his countrymen, that 
his speeches should be collected and given to the 
world with some memoir of his life; which, though 
not eventful, would nevertheless be replete with 
instruction. I trust that some friend will yet un- 
dertake it, for the honor of his name and that of 
his country. 



RUFUS KING.* 

Mr. King is now about sixty years of age, abov^ 
the middle size, and somewhat inclined to corpu- 
lency. His countenance, when serious and thought- 
ful, possesses a great deal of austerity and rigor ; but 
at other moments it is marked with placidity and 
benevolence. Among his friends, he is facetious and 
easy; but when with strangers, reserved and distant 
— apparently indisposed to conversation and inclined 
to taciturnity ; but when called out, his colloquial 
powers are of no ordinary character, and his con- 
versation becomes peculiarly instructive, fascinating 
and humorous. Mr. King has read and reflected 

*^ Written in 1818. 
6* 



m 



KING. 



much ; and though long in public life, his attention 
has not been exclusively devoted to the political sci- 
ences, for his information on other subjects is equally 
matured and extensive. His resources are numerous 
and multiplied, andcaneasilybe called intooperation. 
In his parliamentary addresses he always displays 
a deep and intimate knowledge of the subject un- 
der discussion, and never fails to edify and instruct, 
if he sometimes ceases to delight. He has read 
history to become a statesman, and not for the 
mere gratification it affords. He applies the expe- 
rience of ages, which the historical muse exhibits, 
to the general purposes of government, and thus 
reduces to practice the mass of knowledge with 
which his mind is fraught and embellished. As 
a legislator, he is perhaps inferior to no man in 
this country. The faculty of close and accurate 
observation, by which he is distinguished, has 
enabled him to treasure up every fact of politi- 
cal importance that has occurred since the organ- 
ization of the American Government ; and the 
citizen, as well as the stranger, is often surprised 
at the minuteness of his historical details; the 
facility with which they are recalled ; and the cor- 
rectness and accuracy with which they are applied. 
With the various subjects immediately connected 
with politics, he has made himself well acquainted ; 
and such is the strength of his memory, and the 
extent of his information, that the accuracy of his 
statements is never disputed. Mr. King, however, 
is somewhat of an enthusiast, and his feelings some- 



KING. C3 

times propel him to do that which his judgment 
cannot sanction. I am disposed to think, from a 
rapid survey of his poHtical and parliamentary ca- 
reer, that the fury of party has sometimes betrayed 
him into" the expression of sentiments, and the 
support and defence of measures, that were in their 
character not always accordant with his feelings ; 
and that, whatever he may have been charged with, 
his intentions at least were pure, and his exertions, 
as he conceived, calculated for the public good. 
He was, indeed, cried down by some emigrants in 
this country, who have a considerable influence in 
the political transactions of the United States ; 
and though unquestionably an ornament to the 
nation which has given him birth, his countrymen, 
averse to him from party considerations, joined in 
the cry, and he became a victim perhaps to the 
duty he owed and the love he bore his country. 
Prejudice, however, does not always continue; and 
the American people, with that good sense which 
forms so prominent a feature of their character, are 
beginning justly to appreciate those virtues and 
talents they once so much decried. Mr. King has 
a sound and discriminating mind, a memory un- 
commonly tenacious, and a judgment vigorous, 
prompt, and decisive. He either wants imagina- 
tion, or is unwilling to employ a faculty that he 
conceives only calculated to delight and amuse. His 
object is more to convince and persuade by the force 
of reason, than to play upon the mind by the gaudy 
drapery of fancy. His style of eloquence is plain, but 



64 KING. 

bold and manl}' ; replete with argument, and full of 
intelligence ; neither impetuous nor vehement, but 
flowing and persuasive. His mind, like that of 
Fox, is historical; it embraces consequences the 
most remote without difficulty, and eifects the most 
distant with rapidity and ease. Facts always form the 
basis of his reasoning. Without these his analysis 
is defective, and his combinations and deductions 
often incorrect. His logic is not artificial, hut na- 
tural ; he abandons its formal divisions, non-essen- 
tials, moods and figures, to weaker minds, and ad- 
heres to the substantials of natural reason. Of Mr. 
King's moral character I can say nothing from my 
own personal knowledge, as my acquaintance with 
him has not been long and intimate enough to en- 
able me to judge correctly. I have not, however, 
heard any thing alleged against it calculated to 
lessen his reputation as an honorable statesman, or 
a virtuous member of society. He is wealthy, and 
has, no doubt, something of pride and hauteur in 
his manner offensive to the spirit of republicanisin, 
and inconsistent with the idea of equality ; but 
as a father, husband, and friend, I have not yet 
heard him charged with any dereliction of duty, 
or any violation of those principles which tend to 
harmonize society and unite man to man by the 
bonds of affection and virtue. 

Mr. King was appohited Minister to England a 
few years after the preceding sketch of his charac- 
ter was written : but indisposition and the infirmi- 
ties of age induced him lo relinquish this last honor 



nusii. C5 

which the nation had bestowed upon him, and to 
return to his nat ve land, where he soon aft(!r re- 
posed with his fathers. To have been distinguish- 
ed among the great men of his age was no small 
honor, but it is one which few, if any, will deny 
to the subject of these remarks. Of such men the 
nation must feel proud ; and however party hatred 
may endeavor to distort, or political envy may strive 
to blacken and pollute their character or virtues 
while living, death, like the sun, dispels the clouds 
which have involved them, and draws them forth 
in their native beauty and splendor. There are few 
men who have played a distinguished part on the 
theatre of the world, that cannot say at the close 
®f life : 

Va dans I'ombre etevnelle, ombre pleine d'envie 
Et ne mele plus de censurer ma vie. 



RICHARD RUSH. ' 

Mr. Rush, late Secretary of the Treasury, is a 
gentleman of great suavity of manners and amia- 
bleness of disposition; polished, affable, and cour- 
teous to all, paying the same attention and mani- 
festing the same respect to a subordinate, that he 
would to the highest officer of Government. He is 
about fifty years of age, of a delicate frame, but 
neat in his person. His countenance is mild, pre- 
possessing, and strongly indicative of the gentle 



^^ RUSH. 



and benevolent feelings of his heart. He is a man 
of fine taste and cultivated mind— perhaps more 
brilliant than solid— but not deficient in penetration 
and acuteness. He was educated for the bar, and 
practised the law for several years with success, 
which caused him to be selected to fill the first law 
office under the Government. He preceded Mr. 
Pinckney as Attorney Genera?, was afterwards sent 
as Minister to England, and finally appointed Se- 
cretary of the Treasury under the administration of 
Mr. Adams. To that simplicity which should al- 
ways characterise a republican, is added all the 
ease and urbanity of a gentleman accustomed to 
the most refined and polished society. Although, 
both at home and abroad, he has freely mingled in 
the most polished circles, he remains still the same, 
and has neither acquired additional grace, nor lost 
those traits of republicanism by which he has always 
been distinguished. He writes and speaks with 
great neatness, and sometimes elegance. His offi- 
cial papers or communications discover an intimate 
acquaintance with the subjects on which he treats, 
and are composed in a style of clearness and pre- 
cision, indicating the power of his intellect, and 
the soundness and discrimination of his judgment. 
Mr. Rush has filled every office to which he has 
been appointed with credit to himself and advan- 
tage to the nation. A philanthropist and a patriot, 
he has appropriated his talents and his time to the 
service of his country and the happiness of man ; 
and, amidst the rancor and bitterness of party feel- 



Rt SH. 6^7 

ing, he has, 1 believe, lost no personal friends 
among those who are hostile to his political opinions 
and principles. Mr. Rush is more eminent as a 
statesman than a lawyer. He has studied the vari- 
ous wants and conditions of society, the resource.9 
of his country, and the nature of mankind. The 
sphere of politics is better suited to the bent of his 
inclinations and the character of his mind, than 
the technical subtleties and ingenious sophistry of 
the bar. He prefers the condition in which he 
can contribute more extensively to the glory of his 
country and the happiness of his fellow-men, and 
where he may be less circumscribed in the opera- 
tions of his philanthropy. Though he possesses the 
suaviter in modo, he is not wanting in energy, nor 
deficient in perseverance. If an object is\'o be 
accomplished, he is not retarded by difficulties, 
however formidable ; and what he cannot attain by 
his eloquence, he sometimes effects by his industry 
and assiduity. Though placid, urbane, and bene- 
volent, he is not deficient in bitterness of satire 
and can use it to great effect, when the occasion 
requires its employment. 

In Europe and America he is known and esteem- 
ed as an accomplished gentleman, and as a man of 
fine talents and eminent worth. He has retired 
for a time, into private life, but not into obscurity' 
His country will again, ere long, solicit his ser- 
vices, and once more call into successful employ- 
ment those powers which were intended for the 
benefit and happiness of mankind. 



68 HOLMES. 

JOHN HOLMES. 

Mr. Holmes is a Senator from Maine, and has 
been long known as a public speaker, and distin- 
guished for his well established republican prin- 
ciples. He has served for several years in the 
councils of his country, and has manifested a firm- 
ness and independence at once indicative of energy 
of mind and correctness of judgment. He is pecu- 
liarly fitted for party conflicts, and displays, on all 
questions under discussion, a calm and untiring 
power of investigation, great intellectual resources, 
and a fund of information which enables him to 
enforce his argunients and to illustrate his sub- 
ject with felicity and effect. His facts are gene- 
rally so arranged and presented — are so full and 
satisfactory — that his opponent finds it difficult to 
answer them, or to weaken their force. And 
though not prepossessing in his appearance, though 
slow and deliberate in his enunciation, he seizes 
upon his hearers and forces them to follow him. 
There are too, occasionally, in Mr. Holmes a keen- 
ness of sarcasm, and a bitterness of invective, 
that are the more striking as they are the less ex- 
pected. He is a sensible speaker, and does not 
labor after those bursts of eloquence, and tiiose 
corruscations and flashes of imagination which are 
intended to draw forth involuntary acclamations of 
applause. He prepares no clap-traps — seeks not to 
play upon the feelings of his hearers — but addresses 
himself directly to the judgment; and is satisfied, 



SPRAGUE. ^•> 

if he gains his object, without beinsc very soHcitous 
about the splendor or beauty of tlic medium 
through which it is readied. The Hberality and 
independence of his mind induce liim to act, on 
all occasions, in obedience to the dictates of his 
judgment and according to the principles of un- 
changeable truth. He reasons justly and feels 
correctly, and the nation owes much to his ex- 
ertions. 



PELEG SPRAGUE. 

Mr. Sprague has not been many years in the 
councils of the nation. He is comparatively 
young ; but he has enriched his mind with various 
knowledge, which he employs with great eifect, 
when occasion requires it. He is well versed in 
the political history of tlie world ; his classical 
attainments are respectable ; and his general in- 
formation extensive. He brings to subjects on 
which he intends to address tlie body of which he 
is a member, a mind fraught with intelligence, and 
prepared by previous study and reflection, to en- 
lighten their obscurity and to dispel the mists of 
Sophistry and delusion which surround them. 
Mr. S. indulges" in no extravagant flights, in no 
affected or unnatural bursts of oratory. He thinks 
and feels profoundly, and expresses what he feels 
and thinks in a style chaste, vigorous, and flowing. 
He is a close and logical reasoner, and but seldom 
7 



■^0 SPRAGUE. 

permits himself to sport amid the enchantments of 
imagination, or to cull the flowers of fancy. His 
logic possesses all the precision of mathematical 
accuracy ; his premises are so well laid down, and 
his deductions so conclusively drawn, that few can 
resist the conviction to which he leads the mind of 
the hearer. He never plays upon the outskirts of 
his subject, but encloses his ground, not with the 
*' dazzling fence," but the substantial and inde- 
structible wall of argument. His path is not in- 
deed strewed with flowers, nor is the landscape 
distinguished for its splendor or magnificence, but 
the course is clear and unobstructed, and the force 
of truth lends its charm to the hearer, which, though 
it may not be so beautiful, is not less gratifying, 
than if it were decorated with all the ornaments of 
imagination. Mr. S. seldom indulges in declama- 
tion, and does not covet the reputation of being 
merely a fine speaker. His ambition is more ele- 
vatetl, and his object more laudable. He speaks be- 
cause he conceives it to be his duty to enforce truth 
and to destroy error ; he speaks from a desire to 
benefit his country, and not to acquire the fame of 
an eloquent debater. His views are expanded and 
liberal, and his mind is not less influenced by phi- 
lanthropy than patriotism. He is a sagacious po- 
litician and an able advocate, always found on the 
side of the oppressed, and always ready to defend, 
and always eloquent in the support of the true in- 
terests of his country. In person, Mr. Sprague is 
above the middle size, thin, delicate, but well pro- 



WEBSTER. 71 

portioned. His eye is dark and intelligent ; his 
countenance open and ingenuous ; liis voice full 
and sufficiently powerful ; and his action appro* 
priate, and occasionally graceful. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 

Of this distinguished orator, statesman, and 
lawyer, the American people have heard much. 
He has been long known at the bar and in the 
councils of the nation, as one in whom every 
American must feel a pride. Emerging from com- 
parative obscurity, he has, like most of his coun- 
trymen who have acquired distinction, reached the 
*' vantage ground" he now holds in the estimation 
of the people, by the almost unaided efforts of his 
own powerful mind — thus furnishing a splendid ex- 
ample of the success of industry and talent, in a na- 
tion where talent and industry, if properly directed, 
but seldom fail to lead to wealth and fame. There 
is something in the very exterior of Mr. Webster 
that is calculated to make a strong impression on 
the beholder : His head is peculiar, and would 
iiiake an admirable study for the phrenologist. 
His features are regular, but there is something in 
his dark and deeply sunk eye, that indicates the 
gigantic grasp and vigorous energies of a powerful 
mind ; while his Shakspearian pile of forehead, 
his sallow complexion, strongly defined mouth, 



I 

"/'^ WEBSTER. 

dark raven hair, and heavy eye brows, present a 
head that no one can contemplate with a feehng 
of indifference. In person, he is about the middle 
size, rather broad across the shoulders, and not 
elegantly proportioned. His gait is slow and stea- 
dy, and wants elasticity ; and his dress is usually 
plain and in good taste. The prominent traits of 
his mind are acuteness, depth, fertility, and com- 
prehensiveness ; and those of his heart are, recti- 
tude, liberality, a lofty feeling of independence, 
and a deep sense of what is honorable and just. 
He is not, however, exempt from the appearance 
of pride, blended with haughtiness, which operates, 
in some degree, as a barrier to his popularity, but 
which may originate rather from the abstraction of 
a mind intensely and frequently occupied on mo- 
mentous subjects, than from any real feeling of 
contempt for his fellow men. Mr. Webster is ad- 
mitted to be profound as a jurist and skilful as a 
politician. He has read much and thought deeply 
on all questions connected with his profession ; and 
his mind is so constituted as to apply with great 
accuracy the principles of jurisprudence to the 
peculiar case submitted to his judgment. The 
power of his memory, and his habitual research, 
have made him familiar with the decisions of the 
hio-hest tribunals of EnMand and America ; and 
though long in public life, and frequently called 
upon to take a prominent part in the discussion of 
the most important and interesting subjects of le- 
gislation, he has not omitted to pursue that course 



WEBSTER. "*^^ 

of reading and investigation which is so essential 
to eminence at the bar. Nor while tlius employed 
has he neglected to make himself intimately ac- 
quainted with the history of the legislation of his 
country, and the necessary operation of the policy 
of the government on its prosperity and happiness. 
With a mind thus gifted by nature, and enriclied 
by study and reflection, it would be a matter of 
surprise, if he did not stand forth " proudly emi- 
nent" among his countrymen. Mr. Webster mar- 
shals his arguments with the skiJl of an experienced 
general, and pushes them forward in masses and 
solid columns till all resistance is vain, and the 
conquest is achieved ; or, like the hunter, he draws 
his net closer and closer, till the prey is completely 
enclosed. His mind seems to expand by the in- 
troduction of a new thought, like the successive 
circles of a lake, moved by a pebble. He sup- 
ports his positions not only by the force of logical 
truth, but by all the aids which experience and 
historical facts can furnish, and the natural and 
moral u orld is ransacked for the most strikinor and 
apposite illustrations. His eloquence is charac- 
terised by vigor, simplicity, and power ; he seldom 
indulges in any extravagant bursts of oratory, or 
attempts any fine flourishes of rhetoric. On ordi- 
nary occasions his style is plain and simple, and 
scarcely rises above the common level of colloquial 
ease ; while at the same time he pours out masses 
of thought, that overwhelm by their force, if they 

do not dazzle by their brilliancy. In his extem- 

7# 



74 



WEBSTER. 



poraneous efforts, and these are by far the moat 
frequent, he does not seem desirous to make a dis- 
play, or to figure merely as an orator, but moves 
steadily forward, piling argument upon argument, 
and heaping thought upon thought, suhjecto Pclio 
Ossam, till he reaches the conclusion he has pro- 
posed, and has convinced, as he believes, the minds 
of those he is addressing. There is, I think, 
much more of judgment than imagination in Mp, 
Webster. He lias been so long used to the exer- 
cise of the former, that he deems the employment 
of the latter unnecessary, if it ever existed to a suf- 
ficient extent to render it a useful auxiliary ; and 
his memory, from the want of practice or of taste, 
though it may serve him in that particular vocation 
to which he has been called, sometimes fails him 
when he desires its aid to illustrate or embellish by 
a happy quotation from the poet, historian, or orator. 
His temperament is not poetical, nor is his mind 
imaginative. He throws out no pictures that can 
be admired for their beauty or magnificence ; but 
there are occasional passages in his speeches, of 
splendid declamation, which will always be read 
or heard with admiration. Mr. Webster partakes 
more of Demosthenes than Cicero ; and resembles' 
Fox more than Sheridan. He has the vehemence 
and strength of the former, but wants the epigram- 
matic point and imagery of the latter. His mind 
is naturally logical, and has not been impaired by 
the sophistry of the bar. It analyses every subject 
-presented to it,, and if it be of such a nature as to 



WEBSTER. 'i> 

require great depth and research, the operations 
of his mind, it is said, are so intense and unre- 
mitted, that his complexion becomes darker and 
more biHous, and thus indicates the importance 
and magnitude of the question he is investigating. 
It is not often, however, that he is called upon 
thus to exercise his great powers. Occasionally 
in the Senate, but more frequently at the bar of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, he throws 
out his whole strength, and exhibits the full range, 
'iepth, clearness, and power, of his magnificent in- 
tellect. This was eminently the case in the great 
debate during the last session, on Mr. Foot's reso- 
lution. On that question Mr. W. gave one of the 
finest specimens of his eloquence — a specimen 
which has not been surpassed in any country, 
and which will be preserved and admired by suc- 
ceeding ages as much as it can be by the present. 
Mr. Webster's style is plain but vigorous, occasion- 
ally rising to splendor, but usually unadorned. 
His voice is good, but wants variety of tone for 
brilliant effect ; and his action is easy and appro- 
priate.* Though he may not be a poet, he is 
nevertheless 

Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior atque os 
Mag-na soniturum. 

* A very correct and well-written sketch of Mr. W. 
has been recently g-iven in a work lately publishedj and 
attributed to the pen of Mr. Knapp. 



'^^ FRELINGHUYSEN. 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 

Mr. F. is between 40 and 50 years of age. His 
countenance, though grave, possesses much sweet- 
ness, is often lighted up with the smile of benevo- 
lence, and indicates great sensibility. The last was, 
it is believed, the second session he had served in 
the Senate of the United States, and though it was 
one in which the highest intellectual efforts were 
called into exertion, he did not fall behind the most 
gifted, in the conflict of mind which was then exhi- 
bited. Mr. F.'s views are patriotic, benevolent, 
and enlarged ; animated by the spirit of philan- 
thropy, and guided by the dictates of a sound 
judgment, he is always found on the side of the 
oppressed and persecuted ; and always the advo- 
cate of the true interests of his country. Called 
out by the natural feelings of his heart, and im- 
pelled by a strong sense of duty, he entered into 
the discussion of one of the most important and 
interesting subjects of legislation which has for 
many years been submitted to the consideration of 
Congress, and displayed an acuteness of penetra- 
tion, a depth of feeling, and a power of eloquence, 
which have elevated him to a high rank among 
the orators and statesmen of his country. The 
Indian question was one in which he felt a deep 
interest, and on which he brought to bear all the 
energies of a vigorous and cultivated mind. The 
subject was adapted to the nature of his eloquence, 



FRELINGHUYSEN. ** 

and he did ample justice to it. There are in Mr. 
Frelinghuysen, a zeal and earnestness tliat give 
great effect to wliat he says, and a mellowness and 
plaintiveness in his tones which liarmonize finely 
with the pathos of the subject on which his elo- 
quence is employed. His voice has, perhaps, too 
much of uniformity in its intonations, but it falls 
agreeably upon the ear, is listened to with plea- 
sure, and its effect would be wonderful, if it were 
"nodulated with more art, and made to suit the 
particular sentiment which the speaker feels. 
With the questions on which Mr. Frelinghuysen 
speaks, he previously makes himself well acquaint- 
ed, and never comes unprepared to elucidate, am- 
plify, and enforce, the various topics to be discus- 
sed. He thinks profoundly and justly on whatever 
he attempts to handle, and employs with great 
judgment the labors of others as well as his own, 
to deveiope and enlighten whatever may be dark, 
obscure, or intricate. But the most distincruished 
excellence of this gentleman is the exquisite moral 
and religious tone which he infuses into and which 
breathes through all he utters. Every one who 
listens admits its power, and feels that he is listen- 
ing to one whose heart is deeply imbued with reli- 
gious purity and truth. Mr. F. does not often 
employ his imagination. His mind is more logical 
than poetical ; he prefers reasoning to embellish- 
ment ; and endeavors to convince rather than de- 
light. His style is chaste, and occasionally ora- 
torioal ; and his action easy and appropriate. The 



'^^ CLAYTON. 

correctness of his views, the soundness of his 
judgment, and the sincerity of his heart, give to 
all he says such impressiveness and effect, that he 
never rises at his seat that he does not claim the 
undivided attention of the body of which he is a 
member. In short, his talents and virtues render 
him an honor to his State and an ornament to his 
country. 



JOHX M. CLAYTON. 

Mr. C. is about forty years of age. Ilis form is 
above the middle size, robust, but not very muscu- 
lar. His features are regular ; his eye dark, but 
soft ; his complexion uncommonly fair ; and his 
hair just beginning to be sprinkled with the snows 
of age. Like Mr. Barton, he made his splendid 
debut in the vSenate during the last session of Con- 
gress, and electrified the grave body of which he 
is a member, by the power of his eloquence. He 
might have been, as he no doubt was, distinguish- 
ed in his native State, but he was still " unknown 
to fame" in the political world, and therefore his 
magnificent effort excited the more admiration as it 
was the less expected. His speech on Mr. Foot's 
resolution may be ranked next to Mr. Webster's on 
that question. In chastity of diction, classical pu- 
rity of style, felicity and elegance of thought, and 
beauty of composition, it has been seldom surpass- 



CLAYTON. 79 

ed by the parliamentary orators of our country. 
Mr. Clayton is not less conspicuous for judgment 
than imagination. He not only reasons with great 
logical power, but gives to his reasoning the 
charms of ornament, and arrays his conceptions in 
language sometimes figurative, and almost always 
beautiful. His style possesses a polish, ease, and 
gracefulness, which render it not only pleasing to 
the ear, but agreeable in the closet. It is graceful 
without being elaborate, and polished without being 
recherche. As an illustration, I give the following 
beautiful passage from the speech to which I have 
referred : 

'' It has been said, and I believe truly, that we 
can never fall without a struggle ; but in the con- 
test with such a man, thus furnished by ourselves 
with ' all the appliances and means to boot' against 
us, we must finally sink. For a time our valleys 
will echo with the roar of artillery, and our moun- 
tains will ring with the reports of the rifle. The 
storm of civil war will howl fearfully through the 
land, from the Atlantic border to the wildest re- 
cesses of the West, covering with desolation every 
field which has been crowned with verdure by the 
culture of freemen, and now resounding with the 
echoes of our happiness and industry. But tiie 
tempest must subside and be succeeded by the 
deep calm and sullen gloom of despotism — after 
which the voice of a freeman shall never again be 
heard within our borders, unless in the fearful and 
suppressed whispers of the traveller from some 



so CLAYTON. 

distant land, who shall visit the scene of our de- 
struction to gaze in sorrow on the melancholy 
ruin." 

Mr. Clayton's reasoning is distinguished for its 
lucidus orclo ; his arguments are consecutive, and 
arranged with great clearness. He deals but lit- 
tle in sophistry, never attempts the epigrammatic, 
and is more anxious to produce conviction than 
to excite admiration. In the most extensive range 
of investigation, he never loses sight of the goal 
he has in view, and never suffers the warmth of 
his imafjination or the ardor of his feelings to lead 
him from the point at which he aims. When he 
draws upon his imagination or his memory, it is 
only to gild the shaft, to give it more splendor and 
effect. His urbanity and courtesy in debate, even 
amidst the intemperance of party warfare, are 
striking and uniform. He never allows himself to 
be thrown off his poise, or to descend to incivility 
or rudeness, however strong the temptation, and 
always exhibits the deportment and feelings of a 
gentleman, wliatever may be the [provocation or the 
excitement. To a commanding person, he unites 
an agreeable voice, and an appropriate gesticula- 
tion ; though the one is not sufiiciently varied, nor 
the other regulated by art. Indeed, Mr. C. is a 
man of whom any country might well be proud, 
and from whom his own cannot loner withhold the 
honors due to his distinguished merit. 



RANDOLPH. ^1 

JOHN RANDOLPH. 

Mr. Randolph has been long in the councils ol" 
his country, and long distinguished as an orator. 
He commenced his parliamentary career at an early 
age, and soon displayed those talents and that pe- 
culiar species of eloquence which have thrown 
around his name so much brilliancy. His mind 
appears to have been precocious, and to have at- 
tained maturity too soon to warrant great expecta- 
tions of permanent excellence and usefulness. He 
was for upwards of thirty years a member of the 
House of Representatives, and for some time one 
of the most brilliant and popular orators it con- 
tained. But either from disappointed ambition, or 
the peculiar bent and eccentricity of his mind, he 
unfortunately, if not imprudently, aberrated too 
soon from the course which would have insured 
continued fame, as well as promotion under our 
government. Like Alexander the Great, he sighed 
for more conquests, and endeavored to raise up a 
new party, which failed, and he sunk under the 
ruins he had himself created^ Mr. R. was never, 
however, distinguished for great power and force of 
reasoninsT, and in close and accurate analysis 
was almost always defective. The feebleness of 
his health, an^J^the frailties of his body, have con- 
tributed to affeC< his temper, and to render him 
somewhat ascetic and petulant. His invective is 
terrible, and his sarcasm keen and overwhelming. 
Full of caprice and eccentricities, you know not 
8 



82 



KANDOLPH. 



wiien, or against whom, his deadly sliaft is to be 
levelled, and the hearer is sometimes surprised to 
find the flamino^ sword severing the bones and 
marrow of friend as well as foe. Ilis style is 
chaste and polished — his language always the most 
select and appropriate, and his images, figures, 
and quotations, are big with meaning, and their 
application striking and felicitous. His pronun- 
ciation is founded upon that of the best models of 
England, and remarkable for its correctness. He 
is never at a loss for a word, and the word he se- 
lects is always the one which should have been 
chosen, and no other. His declamation is some- 
times splendid, and always elegant. 

Mr. Randolph's reading is extensive, his taste 
classical, and his knowledge of history, especial- 
ly British history, profound, minute, and accu- 
rate. He often makes the most apt and happy 
quotations, and exhibits analogies which, perhaps, 
no one else would have thought of; but which he 
renders strikincr and forcible. His associations 
are, however, slight, and he thus becomes occa- 
sionally excursive and exceedingly erratic ; but ia 
the midst of his wildest aberrations, he scatters 
around him flowers so beautiful, that very few are 
offended at his devious wanderings, and follow 
him with pleasure wherever he chooses to lead them. 
He never loses a good thought, or a fine image, 
that mav occur to him either in conversation or 
solitude, " but treasures it up in the volume of his 
brain," till it may be wanted, and he never fails to 



-i'- 



RANDOLPH. 



83 



let it out when he has an opportuuity. Ilis invec- 
tive, like the deadly siroc, withers every thing it 
sweeps across, and his opponent is sure to quail 
and shiver beneath its touch. His sarcasms are 
barbed with the most deadly acrimony, and the bit- 
terness of his feelinjTS indicates a ferocious and 
misanthropic character. He indulges more in 
satire than logic, more in invective than rc-isou- 
ino" ; but there is a fascination about him, as nn 
orator, that few can or are willing to resist. His 
very silence is sometimes speaking and elo- 
quent, and the bare motion of his finger or his 
head often conveys as much meaning as the most 
finished or elaborate sentence. But between his 
delivered and published speeches, there is a vast 
difference. In the latter, you lose that charm by 
wliich you are bound when you listen to what he 
utters ". the attitude, gesticulation, emphasis, action, 
are gone. The skeleton is left, but the spirit has 
fled ; the body is there, but the soul is no more. 
To judge of Mr. R. as an orator, you must hear 
him, or rather you must have heard him, when his 
mind was in the plenitude of its power, and his 
imagination luxuriating in the delicious images of 
youth and poetry. Burke seems to be his model, 
and Shakspeare his constant companion. From 
both he draws largely, and with the latter he is as 
familiar as Alexander was with the works of the 
immortal Homer. But Mr. R.'s mind and habits 
are wholly averse from the necessary routine and 
details of business. The meie labors of legislation. 



84 



TAZEWELL. 



are not suited to his temper or intellect, and both 
as a member of a committee and the House, he is 
'almost wholly inefficient. 

Mr. R. is tall, meagre, and badly formed. His 
eye is black and piercing ; his complexion sallow 
and cadaverous ; his hair smoothed down on his 
head, and tied in a cue; and his voice, though of 
no great compass, is uncommonly clear and dis- 
tinct. He is remarkable for his eccentricity, and 
eccentricity has been justly denominated a species 
of derangement. He has recently been appointed 
Minister to Russia, but what figure he will make 
in this new character, or what benefits he will ren- 
der to the nation, time will soon determine. It 
has been considered by those who know Mr. R. 
as a rather extraordinary appointment, and one not 
at all calculated to add to his own fame or the repu- 
tation of his country. 



JLITTLETON W. TAZEWELL. 

Mr. Tazewell held for many years the first rank 
at the bar of his native State. He is an able law- 
yer, and well versed in all the learning connected 
with his profession. His mind has been disciplin- 
ed at the bar, and possesses all the subtilty, acute- 
ness, and sophistry, which the legal profession is 
too apt to produce. By this habit of subtilizing, 
Mr. T. has, I think, impaired the power of intel- 



TAZEWELL. ^'^ 

lectual discrimination. Of him it may be empha- 
tically said, that he can " m ke the worse appear 
the better cause ;" and this power he exercises 
with so much force, ingenuity, and skill, that it 
requires no little reflection, and some analysis, to 
detect the sophistry he has employed, or the er- 
rors of logic into which he has fallen. It is a pity 
so fine a mind should have been injured by a prac- 
tice so little suited to invigorate the judgment, 
whatever may be its tendency to sharpen the facul- 
ties. The habitual practice of indiscriminately 
defending the right and wrong, may brighten, but 
does not streno-then the mind, because the inven- 
tion, and not the judgment, is most generally em- 
ployed ; and though fertility may be the result, it 
is not ahvays accompanied by correctness of de- 
duction or accuracy of decision. Had Mr. Taze- 
well be' ■ trained in the school of legislation, in- 
stead of law, he would unquestionably have beea 
one of the brightest luminaries this country has 
produced. He possesses an intuitive quickness of 
perception and comprehensiveness of intellect, 
that would have given him, in the opinion of his 
countrymen, as elevated a standing as a legislator 
and statesman, as he now holds as a civilian and 
advocate. But having belonged to a party tliat 
has not been held in high estimation in his native 
State, it was his destiny to be excluded, till recent- 
ly, from the councils of the nation, and he has 
been obliged to revolve in a sphere of usefulness 
much more contracted and less suited to the exer- 
8* 



8^ HAYNE. 

cise of the native powers of his mind. As an ora* 
tor, Mr. T.'s diction is plain, but vigorous ; his 
elocution flowing and easy ; his voice full-toned 
and finely modulated, and his action appropriate 
and good. He is tall and stately in his person, and 
his countenance is strongly marked, and indicative 
of the workings of passion. He is altogether a 
remarkable man, and perhaps a fair exemplifica- 
tion of the Virginian character. He is high- 
minded and honorable, blending a feeling of 
aristocracy with that of republicanism ; magnifi- 
cent in his notions, yet simple in his habits ; pas- 
sionately attached to his native State, yet loving 
the other citizens of his country ; clanish, yet libe- 
ral ; refining, yet practical ; seeking fame, yet not 
neglecting wealth ; proud, but not oppressive ; 
haughty, but not overbearing. He is now upwards 
of sixty years of age, and has reached the zenith 
of his fame. Time has silvered his locks, and 
age has wrinkled his brow, but his voice and his 
motion still denote a healthy body and a vigorous 
constitution. As a legislator, he has left no re- 
cord of his wisdom, and no monument which 
will transmit his name to posterity. 



ROBERT Y. HAYNE. 

This gentleman is from the South, and belongs 
to the Jackson party. He is about forty years 
of age ; his countenance is prepossessing and 



HAYNE. S7 

agreeable, and his form compact and well pro- 
portioned. He has been a Senator for some 
years, and is as distinguished for his urbanity as 
his talents. His temper is warm, and his feelings 
ardent and generous. He is an orator of no com- 
mon excellence. His mind is fruitful and aflluent; 
his imagination vigorous, and his judgment correct- 
He reasons with a good deal of power, and wields 
the weapons of logic with much skill and effect. 
The polish and elegance which distinguish him, 
are always calculated to please ; and while 
wrestling with his opponent, he displays so 
much courteousness, that all asperity is lost, and 
nothing like bitterness or mortification is felt. He 
casts upon the subject he is discussing, the light of 
a luminous mind, and concentrates and varies and 
sports with its rays so elegantly, that the listener 
cannot but be delighted with the charm he wields. 
He has, however, embarked in a career that is not 
likely to conduct him to greatness, and the notions 
and opinions which he and the school of politi- 
cians to which he belongs, entertain, are not those 
which will harmonize with the convictions and 
sentiments of the great majority of his countrymen. 
But whatever may be his errors of opinion, or the 
warmth and obstinacy with which he supports 
them, no one can deny him knowledge, eloquence, 
and genius. He stands deservedly at the head of 
his party in the Senate, and was the only opponent 
during the last session, the giant of the North 
deigned to enter the arena to contend with. 



^S FORSYTH. 

JOHN FORSYTH.* 

Mr. Forsyth is a young man, of handsome per- 
son and agreeable manners; he seems to be about 
thirty-five years of age ; his countenance possesses 
a great deal of sweetness and benignity, is very 
prepossessing and very regular. He has, like 
most of the members of the American Congress, 
been educated for the bar, at which he has prac- 
tised for some years, with considerable success. 
He received his education in the seminary of which 
Mr. Crawford was usher ; and first distinguished 
himself in a case of impeachment instituted by 
tlie Legislature of Georgia against the Commis- 
sioners employed to dispose of some public lands 
belonging to that State. On this occasion, though 
but a stripling, he displayed much ability, and 
acquired no little reputation. It was the means of 
making him known through his native State, and 
of bringing him into public life as a member of the 
great national council. The practice of the law 
has, therefore, for the present, been relinquished, 
either from necessity or inclination. Legislation, 
however, seems to be better adapted to his habits 
and feelings, and it is scarcely probable he will 
ever retmrn to his profession, if he should be so for- 
tunate as to succeed in tlie difficult and arduous 
duties of a politician and statesman, in which he 
is now engaged. I think Mr. Forsyth has some 

* This sketch was written In 1817", and published in 
the " Letters from Washing-ton." 



FORSYTE* S9 

amuition, and is solicitous to render himself con- 
spicuous in political life. His talents are by no 
means of an ordinary character, and were he to 
devote more of his time to the improvement of his 
mind, and the acquisition of that various and ge- 
neral knowledge so essential to a statesman, he 
would have but few superiors in this country. I 
think him a fine and sometimes an eloquent speak- 
er ; his voice is harmonious, and susceptible of 
great modulation, but not sonorous or powerful. 
He wants impetuosity and vehemence, but sup- 
plies this deficiency by a constant, regular, and 
uninterrupted flow, which resembles a stream 
where no rocks arise or projections intervene to 
disturb the gentle motion of its current. His style 
is not figurative or ornamented, but sufficiently 
flowing and oratorical to gratify the ear and please 
the mind. I believe Quinctilian and Lonffinus 
have asserted, that revolutions and republics al- 
ways produced great orators. This is unquestion- 
ably true ; but the speakers of this country do not 
seem to cultivate oratory as an art, and its artifi- 
cial embellishments and elegancies are therefore 
somewhat neglected. Habit has given the public 
speakers and declaimers of this country a facility 
of speech and a rapidity and ease of elocution, 
with which they seem to rest satisfied, and make 
no farther effort to attain the sublimity and eleva- 
tion of true eloquence. Mr. Forsyth is more of a 
debater than an orator ; his elocution flows, but 
never gushes ; his phraseology is not tastefully se- 



&0 FORSYTH. 

lected or artfully arranged ; his deductions are noi 
always conclusive, nor his sophistry ingenious ; he 
wants the '* dazzling fence of argument," the epi- 
grammatic point, and the graceful antithesis, which 
may be noticed in Grattan and the Irish orators ; 
but still Mr. Forsyth is capable of excellence, and 
has received from nature those powers which, with 
proper polish and cultivation, would conduct him 
to a niche in the temple of immortality. 

Mr. Forsyth has continued ever since the above 
was written, in public life. He was, soon after its 
appearance, made Senator of the United States; 
then Minister to Spain ; afterwards Governor of 
his native State ; and is again a Senator from 
Georgia. He is devoted to party, and ambitious 
of high station and political eminence. But he 
has yet to learn that each is but 

A proud mendicant, it boasts and begs : 
It begs an alms of homage from the throng, 
And oft the tlirong denies its charity. 

Shakspeahe. 

Popular favor is but a transient bauble, and 
every politician will experience its emptiness. He 
who prostitutes talent, or sacrifices private friend- 
ship at the shrine of ambition, may live to repent 
his folly in bitterness of spirit, and learn too late 
that he has followed a shadow and left the sub- 
stance behind, and that his idol has been a glitter- 
ing meteor, radiant and glorious to the vision, but 
hollow and worthless to the touch. 



LIVINGSTON. '^1 

EDWARD LrlVINGSTON. 

Mr. Livingston, though now upwards of seventy 
years of age, still retains the powers of mind which 
distinguished him in tlie maturity of life. lie is 
tall, thin, and but little bent by age. His step is 
still firm and elastic, and nothing seems to have 
failed him but his vision, the deficiency of which is 
supplied by a lens suspended from his neck, which 
he uses instead of spectacles. Mr. L. has been 
ioncr known as a lawyer and civilian of the first 
rank. The famous batture question, in whi^h he 
was opposed by the illustrious JeflTerson, gave him 
a notoriety which his subsequent conduct has not 
tended to diminish. His Louisiana Code, the re- 
sult of profound knowledge and laborious investi- 
gation, has been adopted in all the courts of that 
State ; and his researches in this branch of science, 
and his labors in codification, like those of Jeremy 
Bentham, have been profound and indefatigable. 
He has been recently, it is believed, engaged in 
preparing a criminal code for the District of Co- 
lumbia, which is certainly much wanted, and which 
Congress will no doubt adopt as a substitute for the 
wretched system of criminal jurisprudence which 
now prevails in this District. Mr. Livingston is a 
gentleman of extensive reading and great attain- 
ments. He is acquainted with the ancient and 
most of the modern languages, which has opened 
to him the treasures those languages contain. As 
a legislator and lawyer, he stands deservedly high. 



i^2 LIVINGSTON. 

Though a septuagenarian, his mind is still acute, 
subtle, and discriminating, and no evidence as yet 
appears of a decay of intellectual power. His 
speeches are elaborate, recherche, and ingenious, 
often indeed as much intended to convince him- 
self as his hearers, and perhaps bordering too close- 
ly on the sophistry of the bar. His written are, 
however, better than his oral speeches ; for in the 
former he endeavors to polish the style and elabo- 
rate the argument, to meet the public eye and to 
sustain his reputation, while in the latter he seems 
to be more careless and indifferent. Mr. L. is not 
very fluent ; he pauses and hesitates too frequently, 
and his enunciation, from the loss of his teeth, is 
somewhat indistinct, and his voice too low. He is 
listened to more for the matter than the manner, 
which is nevertheless not disagreeable. He evinces 
a liberality and fiiirness in the discussion of a sub- 
ject, which are always felt and appreciated, and 
which render him at all fimes an lionorable oppo- 
nent Mr. Livingston's mind has not been exclu- 
sively applied to political and legal subjects; it has 
been occasionally refreshed at the Pierian fount, 
and enriched by the treasures of literature. He 
does not, like Brougham, relax his ficulties by de- 
monstrating a mathematical proposition, but by 
clipping into the scenes of Shakspeare, Alfieri, or 
Voltaire. He has not yet outlived his reputation, 
though it is somewhat diminished, and has sunk 
from the *' high and palmy state" it had once at- 
tained. Age has impaired the vigor of his imagi- 



<^ 



JOHNSTON. i>«^ 



nation, but has not dainped the native ardor of his 
feelinsrs. Thouirh he has ontlived the ijiiantasics 

Oct I 

of life, its vapid realities do not seem to have les- 
sened his attachment to tlie world. Perhaps the 
experience of seventy years may now induce him 
to feel, in the language of Petracli, 

*' Che quanto place al mondo e breve sogno." 

If it do not, the conflicts of party rancor, the 
vicissitudes of fortune, and the sickening vanities 
of the world, have been experienced in vain, and 
life has not been to him a school of wisdom, but a 
scene of successive and uninterrupted enjoyments, 
not " stale, dull, and unprofitable," but redolent of 
joy, radiant with hope, and teeming with pleasure. 



JOSIAH S. JOHNSTON. 

Mr. Johnston has been in Cong:ress for several 
years, and a member of both branches of the Na- 
tional Legislature. lie is not less conspicuous 
as a legislator than as a gentleman. He has all 
the intelligence necessary to constitute the one, 
and all the propriety of action and the urbanity and 
courtesy of manners which form the other. As 
a statesman, his views are liberal and just, always 
supporting those principles which he conceives 
to be the best calculated to promote the great into?- 
rests of his country, and always ready to defend the 

cause of truth and humanity. ThouD-h his course 
9 



94 



BARTON. 



while in public life has not been marked by its spleu- 
dor, it may be traced by its usefulness. It is not 
his ambition to figure as a politician, or to attain 
high political rank. He esteems it the highest 
honor to be the representative of a free people, and 
to discharge the duties of his station in such a 
manner as to merit .their approbation, while he re- 
tains his own ; and he covets neither place nor 
power. His talents and information have been so 
justly appreciated that he has generally been plac- 
ed on the most important committees, to which he 
is always deemed a valuable accession. His mind 
possesses considerable acumen, and does not want 
depth or comprehensiveness. His expositions are 
clear and satisfiictory, and he sometimes concen- 
trates his rays of light so strongly, that the obscur- 
est parts of what he is handling become luminous. 
As a speaker, he wants fluency, but possesses 
force ; and. as a politician, his conduct is fair and 
honorable. 



DAVID BARTON. 

This o-entleman is short of stature, but erect and 
well proportioned. His gait, like his enunciation, 
is slow and sedate, and his countenance is grave, 
with a spice of satire running through its linea- 
ments. His eye is gray and expressive, and his 
mouth peculiarly prim and eloquent. Till the last 
session of Congress, his talents were not fully 
known or appreciated. Tie occasionally made a 



BARTON. 



ir5 



srpecch which was admired for its power and intel- 
ligence, but his retiring manners and melanclioly 
mood seldom allowed him to make a disi>lay of 
those talents with which he is gifted. He seemed 
' to seek no distinction, and pursued the "even te- 
nor of his way" almost unnoticed and unknown, 
till the peculiar nature of the great question intro- 
duced into the Senate by Mr. Foot called him out, 
and gave him an opportunity to exhibit those pow- 
ers with which he is endowed. There was some- 
thing original in the manner in which he handled 
the subject under discussion ; and all were surpris- 
ed at the keenness of his invective and the pungen- 
cy of his satire, because they were unexpected, 
though not uncalled for or undeserved. From the 
general gravity of his manner, no one anticipated 
such a display, and all were struck with the peculiar 
severity and novelty he exhibited. Some of his sub- 
sequent efforts, during the same session, were more 
argumentative and less caustic, but they still evinc- 
ed a deep feeling of indignation against the acts of 
the administration. Mr. Barton's mode of warfare 
is like that of the Indian — he first scalps and then 
tomahawks his adversary. His allusions, though 
somewhat mystical, are nevertheless striking, and 
often felicitous, and his figures are purposely suited 
to the taste of the West, in which he has spent the 
most of his life. His bitterness originates as much 
from his hypochondriacal temperament, as from his 
contempt of folly and his disgust at profligacy. Con- 
vinced of the purity of his motives and the correct- 



96 



BAHTON. 



cess of his views, he is bold, independent, and 
fearless, and marches up to the point of his ene- 
my's sword, without blanching at its aspect, and 
with a determination neither to give nor receive 
quarters. There is another peculiarity in the cha- 
racter of Mr. Barton, v»'hich should not be omitted^ 
With almost repulsive gravity, his " heart is open 
as day to melting charity," and he bestows with 
princely munificence where the object is worthy of 
his benevolence, and sometimes, indeed, without 
inquiring whether it be so or not. The soubrequet 
which has been given him, is one which, from its 
appropriateness, will remain attached to him thro' 
life. " The Little Red" is one of those individuals 
who are destined to figure in the world, and who 
deserve the distinction they acquire. 



I shall now proceed to give a few brief sketches 
of the distinguished Members of the House of Re- 
presentatives, which, though it has not of late been 
so fruitful in talent and eloquence as it once was, 
still contains many who rank high in the scale of 
intellectual power and acquirement. These I shall 
arranofe, as I have done those of the Senators, ac- 
cording to States, beginning with Massachusetts. 



EVERETT. 



97 



EDWARD EVERETT. 

Mr. Everett has been but a few years a repre- 
sentative in Congress, and is still but a young man. 
His parliamentary career has been, so far, as bril- 
liant as his friends could have expected, or as he 
could himself desire. He was preceded by a high 
literary reputation, and his drhut on the floor of 
the House did not tend to lessen it. There was 
something splendid and classical in his first speech, 
which excited great attention, and produced plea- 
sure in those who heard him. Mr. Everett is more 
of an orator than a debater. He has practised in 
(he professor's chair, and in the pulpit, till his elo- 
<:ution has become easy and captivating. On ora- 
tory, as an art, he has bestowed much of his atten- 
tion and labor ; and when the subject suits the pe- 
culiar character of his mind, or the nature of his 
feelings, his declamation is splendid. He throws 
into his voice a pathos and beauty of intonation, 
that render it exceedingly agreeable. Its dulcet 
and mellow cadences, 

" Musical as is Apollo's lute," 

fall delightfully upon the ear, and when em])loyed 
in giving expression to a fine sentiment, a lofty 
conception, or a generous and noble feeling, they 
resemble poetry bloided with music, and act upon 
the mind with a charm that no one feels a wish to 
resist. His attitudes, though studied, are easy and 

gracefulj while the fire of his fine hazel eve. and 

9* 



9^3 EVERETT. 

the expression of his grave<-but intellectual counte- 
nance, give the most powerful effect to all he ut- 
ters. When Mr, Everett becomes heated with the 
subject, and stimulated by the gaze of those around 
him, his declamation is magniticent, and his elo- 
quence is poured out with so much power, and 
with such propriety and gracefulness of manner, 
that every hearer is delighted, and feels that he is 
addressed by one of no ordinary genius. The 
style of his eloquence, and the peculiar plaintive- 
ness of his voice, are finely adapted to subjects sus- 
ceptible of pathos. Though these are, perhaps, 
better suited to the pulpit than the Senate, they are 
nevertheless attractive everywhere, and give a 
charm to the tone of moral reflection and senti- 
ment in which he occasionally indulges, that every 
one must feel. From his habit of declaiminij in 
the pulpit, he is perhaps somewhat too didactic in 
his manner, for the sphere which he now occu- 
pies ; but there is a classical purity and beauty in 
his style and allusions, and a lucidness in his ar- 
rangement, that must give pleasure to every cul- 
tivated mind. Mr. E. is a ripe scholar : he has the 
reputation of being inferior in this respect to none 
in this country, and his general reading has been 
extensive and well digested. He possesses a culti- 
vated taste, a chastened though not very vigorous 
imagination, and a judgment at all times accurate 
and discriminating. As a logician, there are some 
of his coadjutors in legislation who surpass him in 
force and ingenuity, but not in clearness and truth 



EVERETT. 91) 

of moral deduction, or accuracy of rcasonin;:r. The 
bar has given to some of his associates greater rea- 
diness and facility in wielding the weapons of logic, 
but they have less range of argument, and less 
beauty of illustration. I have said that Mr. E. is 
less of a debater than an orator, because his incli- 
nations and pursuits having been more literarv 
than political, he is not at all times ready to meet 
his opponent, and but seldom addresses the Housr? 
untd he is fully prepared by previous research and 
reflection, and then only v/licn (pieations of deep 
interest and importance are brought up for discus- 
sion. On minor questions he will not often de- 
scend to speak, and he has not that temper whicli 
would lead him to deal in invective and bitter sar- 
casm. He treats his opponent with great mildness 
and candor, and reasons with the coolness of a phi- 
losopher, though he sometimes gives vent to indig- 
nant feelings, and on those occasions his bursts of 
oratory are truly splendid. He is far from giving 
'' to party, what is due to mankind ;" its bicker- 
ings, intemperance, and animosities, do not dis- 
turb the equanimity of his mind, and he meets his 
political adversary in fair and honorable combat, 
and never suffers himself to be thrown from his 
course by violence, indecorum, or uant of courlesy. 
It has been said of Mr. Everett, with great proprie- 
ty, as it was said of Goldsmith, " Nihil tctigit 
quod non ornavit." He handles no subject that 
he does not ornament from the natural and ac- 
quired elegance of his mind. His regular ora- 



1^0 ^ EVERETT. 

tions, parliamentary speeches, and his literary es- 
says, all breathe a spirit of philanthropy, a justness 
of thought, a depth of feeling, and a tone of moral 
beauty, which every impartial mind must admire. 
There is however observable in some of his intel- 
lectual efforts, a want oi richness of coloring, which 
would indicate that in the cultivation of his judg- 
ment he had too much neglected the exercise of 
his imagination. It is not so often employed as it 
jiiight be with effect, to give richness and splendor 
to his composition, whether prepared in the closet 
or, delivered on the rostrum. American orators are 
usually, I think, too dry and didactic ; they confine 
themselves rather too strictly to mere argumenta- 
tion, and will but rarely suffer themselves to sport 
amid the brilliant corruscations of wit, or to use a 
faculty which, under the guidance of a cultivated 
taste, is so well suited to give magnificence and 
beauty to the productions of the mind. 

Mr. Everett, though long devoted to the refined 
and elegant pleasures of literature, to 

" Calm contemplation and poetic ease," 

is nevertheless a man of business, and is among 
the most punctual, regular, and assiduous, in the 
discharge of his parliamentary duties. lie is ne- 
ver absent from the House, or from a meeting of a 
committee to which he may belong, unless detain- 
ed by sickness, and is always prompt in bringing 
the business referred to him before the body of 
which he is a member, for its action. Mr. Everett 



PAVIS. 



101 



is ambitious of political distinction, which, I doubt 
not, he will attain, from the character of his mind, 
his industry, and the extent and variety of his at- 
tainments. Ilis patriotism is ardent and his assi- 
duity unceasing. In the pulpit, the editorial and 
professor's chair, on the rostrum and the floor of 
Congress, he has been equally conspicuous and 
equally successful. Asa reviewer, he has given 
reputation to the literary character of his country, 
and as an orator, he is held in high and merited 
estimation. His style of speaking and writing is 
neat, flowing, and oratorical, and his speeches are 
always listened to and read with edification and 
pleasure. Mr. E. is indeed one in whom, from the 
extent of his acquirements, the superiority of his 
intellect, and his devotion to the cause of truth, of 
letters, and his country, the nation must feel a just 
and honorable pride. 



JOHN DAVIS. 



Mr. Davis is a native of Massachusetts, and has 
been a member of the House of Representatives 
for about six years. He does not often address the 
body to which he belongs ; but when he does, it is 
with great ability and effect. He is sedate, grave, 
and circumspect, reflecting intensely on the sub- 
ject brought up for discussion, and speaking only 
when it is of such a nature as to require the lights 
and energies of superior minds. On such occa- 



104 BURGES. 

There is, indeed, something youthful and elastic 
and glowing in its operations, a beautiful blending 
of the luxuriant verdure of spring with the rich 
maturity and abundance of autumn. The " sear 
and yellow leaf" is enclosed in a wreath of roses, 
and the maxims of age are decorated with the 
flowers of poetry. Mr. B. is a man of wealth ; he 
has been, it is said, a professor of elocution in one 
of the northern colleges, and is in some degree his 
own teacher. Like all self-taught men, he has read 
much and reflected more. The information he 
possesses has been carefully passed through the 
crucible of his mind, and can be called out when- 
ever it is required. His recollection enables him 
to call up whatever may be treasured in his memo- 
ry, and he can always give to his facts '* a local 
habitation and a name." Mr. Burges is among 
the few legislators of our country who have not 
made law a profession. The Congress of the Unit- 
ed States contains a large majority of this class of 
men. The legal profession supplies the most 
abundant and best materiel of both Houses. The 
practice of the law, however, is not, I think, exactly 
suited to the character of a legislator or a statesman. 
The bar and the Senate require different qualifica- 
tions and different powers. To be eminent at the 
bar, a strong memory, some subtilty, a good deal of 
sophistry, and a knowledge of jurisprudence, are ge- 
nerally all that are recjuired ; but to be distinguished 
in the chair of state, or the hall of legislation, a 
mind of greater range and comprehensiveness — a 



BURGES. 10:> 

more cultivated intellect, and a deeper knowledge 
of human action and human motives are necessary : 
hence it often occurs that those who have become 
eminent at the bar, are far from bcinjr the most 
prominent, or the most useful, in the halls of Con- 
gress. It is a new arena to which their previous 
studies and pursuits have rendered them, in some de- 
gree, strangers; and they find it is not enough, from a 
feeling of vanity, or a principle of 0{)position, to 
make the '' worse appear the better cause." They 
must act on a wider field, and operate on a more 
extended range of materials. '"The quirks, and 
quiddities," the sophistry and technicalities of the 
law, are of little avail in a field so extended and 
variegated, as that which a legislative assembly pre- 
sents. The study of jurisprudence as a science, or 
as a branch of liberal education, is unquestionably 
a useful ingredient in the formation of a legislator-; 
but the long and continued practice of the law has a 
tendency, I conceive, to contract the mind to the 
mere exercise of technical subtilties, or to limit it to 
the production of ingenious, though, perhaps, splen- 
did sophisms. The history of the world will prove 
that the most eminent legislators and statesmen have 
not been those who have devoted much of their time 
to the practice of the law. Solon, Lycurgus, and 
Numa, of ancient, and Pitt, Burke, and Fox, of mo- 
dern times, were not lawyers, and, most likely, if 
they had been, would not have reached the glorious 

eminence they attained. The most distinguisherl 
10 



lOG BURGES. 

statesmen of this country were not tho^e who were 
taken from the bar. Washington, Jefferson, and 
Madison (though the two latter had studied the 
law,) were not professional lawyers. Their minds 
had not been narrowed down by a habitual inter- 
mingling of right and wrong, or warped by a con- 
j5r,strained and constant perversion of moral truths. It 
is not always a fact that this profession expands the 
intellect, and produces habits of reflection, though 
the mind is indeed constantly employed ; but it is 
not in the developement of hidden, or in the pur- 
suit of obvious truths; on the contrary, it is often 
employed to darken, or pervert them ; and the pro- 
fession has, at best, no greater power than what the 
investigation of mathematical or abstract metaphy- 
sical subjects will afford. 

"The law, says Burke, is not apt, except in per- 
sons happily born, to open and liberalize the mind 
in exactly the same proportion as the other 
sciences." A mind disciplined at the bar, instead 
of being strengthened, is apt to lose its energies,, 
and the habit of incessantly seeking for arguments 
on either side, tends to weaken its powers of dis- 
crimination. Lawyers are, however, eminently 
useful in legislative assemblies. They are, from the 
3iature of their profession, well skilled in the phrase- 
ology, mechanism, and interpretation of law ; and 
can, therefore, give them that finish, efficiency and 
operation, they ought to have. It has, indeed, some- 
times occurred, that statesmen of a high order have 



BURGES. 107 

been taken from the bar, but tbey Ijave been 
men of genius, whose inclinations have lotl them, 
and whose reflections have been early direct- 
ed, to those great and interesting subjects, which 
concern the well being of society, and the prosperi- 
ity and happiness of nations. Their minds have 
early taken apolitical direction, and have not been 
weakened or degraded by exercising them in the 
indiscriminate and constant support of the right and 
the wrong. One of the principal evils resulting from 
this predilection for jurisprudence as a profession in 
this, as it will he perhaps in all republics, is too great 
a fondness for speaking. The habit of extempora- 
neous oratory acquired at the bar, and the reputa- 
tion it produces, lead to the too frequent exercise 
of the power of speech, which tends to lessen the 
standing of those who yield to it, and to consume 
the time of the body they address. Extem}X)raneous 
oratory, in which most of the legal gentlemen of 
this country excel, is unquestionably a most invalua- 
ble talarit, and when exercised with proper modera- 
tion, might be employed profitably to its possessor, 
and advantageously to the nation. But nothing can 
be more puerile and annoying, than a mere logocra- 
cy, v/here speeches continue to be poured out, long 
after the subject of discussion has ceased to inter- 
est, or to be susceptible of new or additional illustra- 
tion. The nature of our government, will, how- 
ever, always produce this evil, which belongs to, and 
is inherent in, every representative democracy. 
Members will often, either from vanity, a love oi' 



108 BURGES. 

distinction, or a solicitude to please their constitu- 
ents, be induced to speak longer and more fre- 
quently than they would be disposed to do, under -a 
different order of things ; and though they feel, and 
acknowledge the evil of it, they perceive it is one 
that it would be worse than vain to attempt to de- 
stroy, while the motives and causes 1 have mention- 
ed continue to operate. 

But to return from this digression. Mr. Burgeg 
always throws into the subject which he discusses, 
the spirit and enthusiasm by which he is fired, 
and whatever may be its abstract nature, he gives 
it variety by a judicious exercise of the imagina- 
tion, as well as the judgment. He does not con- 
fine himself to mere logi3 alone, but avails himself 
of the aids of its kindred art, rhetoric, and tliQ 
beauties of elocution, employing a style figurative 
and ornate, and decorating his subject with the 
pictures of the poet, while he elucidates and en- 
forces it by the lights of history and the book of 
experience. His manner is too warm and vehe- 
ment for his years, but it is not offensive or displeas- 
ing, and the hearer listens till lie catches his en- 
thusiasm and regards his vehemence as appropri- 
ate. Mr. B. is fond of declamation, and indulges 
occasionally in satire, which is keen, but genteel. 
There is nothing in it of roughness or vulgarity; 
it is the Damascus blade, and not the scalping 
knife, and though it cuts with great keenness, the 
wound is not rankling. Mr. B. commenced his 
parliamentary career perhaps too late in life to bes 



STORRS. 10i» 

come an active or efficient debater, and prefers the 
cliaracter of an orator, for which his genius, tem- 
perament, and acquirements, better fit him, and at 
which he aims in most of his oratorical eflbrts. 
His poHtical views are expansive and cnHghtened, 
and party prejudice is seldom suffered to lead him 
into error, or to darken the native clearness of his 
judgment. His moral is, I believe, equal to his in- 
tellectual character, and his eloquence has, there- 
fore, all the charms of moral beauty, as well as the 
force of intellectual excellence. In short, there 
are few men of Mr. B.'s age in this country better 
fitted to adorn the circles of domestic life, or to give 
splendor to the sphere of political action. The 
vanities of the world have lost their hold upon him, 
but he still feels the stimulus of ambition, *'the last 
infirmity of noble minds." It is not, however, the 
ambition which leads to the attainment of rank or 
place, but that which conducts to intellectual and 
moral eminence. This he has reached, and this 
form.s the ultima thtde, the last boundary of hi^ 
earthly wishes and expectations. 



HENRY R. STORRS. 

Mr. Storrs is a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and has been a Representative from 
New York for several years. In his person, he is 
above the middle size, well-formed, but rather 
10* 



110 STORKS. 

" fat llian bard beseems." His face is full and 
fleshy ; his eye small, and defective in vision, 
which renders it necessary for him to use specta- 
cles. He is, I believe, a native of Connecticut, 
between forty and fifty years of age, and has re- 
sided in New York for many years. As a debater, 
he has but kw equals, and his eloquence, when he 
is in the humor to employ it, and the subject is of 
sufficient importance to call it forth, is almost irre- 
sistible. His elocution is easy, and agreeable ; he 
moves forward without hesitation ; his style is neat 
and flowing, and sometimes ornamental ; and his 
gesture appropriate, and graceful. In answering 
the arguments of his opponent, he throws aside the 
rubbish which has been cast around them, and 
brushes away the cobwebs of sophistry in which 
they have been involved — exposes their fallacy and 
weakness — pours around his own such a flood of 
light, and maintains their correctness and truth with 
such ingenuity and force, that few who hear him 
can refuse their assent to the justness of his conclu- 
sions, or are able, if willing, to resist the power of 
his logic, and the force of his eloquence. He 
speaks, as if without premeditation, and the House 
is often surprised at the light he diffuses, and the 
information he displays. There is nothing, how- 
ever, in Mr. S.'s style of eloquence very brilliant — 
be does not often use many of the embellishments 
of rhetoric. The power he seems to exercise is 
that of genius cultivated to a certain extent ; hut 
without stooping to avail itself of the assistance of 



STORKS. Ill 

art. Like Bcrke, he is always prepared, because, 
like him, he reflects much ; and thougii, from his 
general habits, what he says has the appearance of 
being extemporaneous, he nevertheless tliinks deep- 
Jy on all subjects which are to present themselves 
for discussion, or are connected with the general 
objects of legislation. Mr. S. is therefore seldom 
at a loss, and never betrays any ignorance of the 
subject he may be called upon to discuss; and so 
great is the affluence of his mind that he pours out 
arguments with a profusion, and employs illustra- 
tions, with an aptitude and skill, that none can lis- 
ten to him without astonishment and pleasure. 

Mr. Storrs is a lawyer, and has all the acuteness 
and ingenuity which the practice of that profession 
is apt to produce, but his habits are indolent, and 
his temperament hypochondriacal, and it is but 
seldom he is sufficiently roused to come out in his 
full strength. When he does, there are few that 
can conquer him in intellectual combat. Of Mr. 
S. it may be said, in the language of Burke, "his 
style of argument is neither trite or vulgar, nor 
subtle and abstruse ; he always hits the House just 
between loind and waters With more firmness and 
decision of character, he would have a more de- 
cided influence, and if his ambition or his industry 
were equal to his genius, there is perhaps none 
that would take a higher stand in the opinion and 
esteem of his countrymen. 



112 m' 



M DUFFIE. 



GEORGE M'DIFFIE. 



This gentleman has acquired a high reputatioHj 
and certainly not an unmerited one, in the political 
world. He is still young, not being more than 35 
years of age, and ranks among the first in the na- 
tion in all that constitutes intellectual superiority. 
Like Webster, he affords another example of the 
success of genius and industry unaided by family 
influence or wealth. Mr. M'Duffie has risen, it is 
said, from humble begirmings, and perhaps has 
felt too warmly and sensibly for his interest, the 
noble principle of gratitude. ' His genius was early 
discovered and appreciated by one who, by extend- 
ing to him his patronage and friendship, has exer- 
cised an influence over him which it is thouo^ht 
has in some degree cast a shade upon his future 
prospects and lessened his political standing. He 
belongs to the southern school of politics, which 
may have some distinguished proselytes, but is not, 
I think, destined to spread its principles extensive- 
ly, or soon to become triumphant or successful in 
this country. He had acquired a merited reputa- 
tion by his abilities, and his course, during a part 
of the session of 1829-30, had exalted him in the 
estimation of his political friends and opponents. 
It was marked and approved by all ; but he was not 
satisfied — recklessly dashed the cup from his lips, 
and by one false step lost in some degree the rank 
which he held in the minds of his countrymen as 
a legislator and a statesman. Nothing can, how- 



m'duffie. 113 



f>.^-;:'-^^j* 



ever, impair his reputation for ability. His talents 
and eloquence are not to be questioned. Ilia 
mind is acute, discriminating and powerful. He 
labors incessantly, and when his passions and pre- 
judices have no excitement, his intellectual opera- 
tions are not only vigorous, but successful. He 
confines himself to no particular mode of reason- 
ing ; it is sometimes synthetic and sometimes ana- 
lytic. His arguments are arranged with great 
clearness, and presented with force. His views 
are sometimes original and occasionally splendid. 
He is ingenious, and often makes up for the want 
of information on any particular subject by his in- 
genuity. Like Mr. Webster, he is a business 
speaker ; he reasons like a man of business, and 
strives to satisfy the judgment, without appearing 
desirous to seize upon the imagination. He is stu- 
dious and reserved, and devotes his time and at- 
tention to the business of the House, and that of 
the committees of which he may be a member, 
with unceasing assiduity. As a speaker, he is 
fluent, argumentative, and vehement. His manner, 
however, is rather ungraceful, and the vehemence 
of his gesture, instead of giving impressiveness to, 
tends to lessen the power of his eloquence. His 
action is too uniform and violent ; his right arm is 
drawn back and thrust forward with energy, as if 
he was hurling the truth at the Speaker, which 
gives him the appearance of a pugilist in the act 
of striking his antagonist a blow. His voice too 
wants power and modulation ; he cannot regulate 



114 m'duffie. 

its cadences, or adapt its tones to the sentiment he 
utters. But what he says comes with great force 
and effect on the mind. He moves along with 
fluency, and declaims with vehemence. His rea- 
soning is often solid and always ingenious ; his 
sarcasm is keen, and his satire biting. He has an 
earnestness and fire about him, that give to all he 
says the appearance of sincerity and the force of 
truth. He does not dislike ornament, and his ima- 
gination is sometimes called upon for images, and 
his memory for illustrations, which are often appo- 
site and felicitous. Possessing the warmth of feel- 
ing common to the South, he is occasionally, per- 
haps, too intemperate in language, and extravagant 
in sentiment, and may, sometimes, " overstep the 
modesty of nature ;" but there is, notwithstanding, 
a redeeming spirit in the operations of his mind, 
which throw these minor blemishes into shade. We 
lose sight of the manner, in the soundness, and oc- 
casional elegance of the matter, Mr. McD. always 
makes himself well acquainted with the subject on 
which he means to address the House, and by read- 
ing, and reflection, stores his mind with images, 
arguments, and facts, calculated to enforce and 
defend the positions he may advance. There is in 
his speeches no pomp of erudition, no evidence of 
a mind embued with classical beauty, none of the 
embellishments of poetry, and no attempts at wit. 
His native ore does not glitter, but effused by the 
heat of his mind, casts out, not a brilliant, but a 
aniform and continuous light, which serves to illu- 



m'duffie. ii'» 

mine the path he takes, and to conduct the hearer 
to the retreats of trutli. His styki corresponds 
with the character of his mind, vigorous and occa- 
sionally elegant ; his words are not, however, al- 
ways the most choice or appropriate, but they flow 
with sufficient rapidity, and are well placed. lie 
has the substance without the shadow of elo- 
quence — the principiuvi ct fons of oratory, and 
the power of his mind is felt and acknowledged by 
all on whom he wishes it to operate. His temper 
is, however, somewhat too ardent, I think, to give 
him a decided influence, as the leader of a party. 
It is too apt to burst out into ebullitions and to be- 
come stormy and tempestuous. This must necessa- 
rily weaken his hold upon the opinions and feelings 
of his political friends, and though they acknow- 
ledge his ability, they cannot always confide in his 
discretion. He evidently aspires at political emi- 
nence, and this point he would assuredly attain, 
were he to pursue that policy which wisdom points 
out. He has merely to keep aloof from the con- 
flicts of party ; to lend hmiself to no faction ; to 
become the instrument of no demao-ofrue ; and to 
identify himself with no ambitious aspirant. Let 
him consult the crreat interests of his countrv, cast 
aside all local prejudices, and think and act inde- 
pendently and fearlessly on the great principles of 
national prosperity and happiness. Let the world 
see that he is stimulated more by the spirit of pa- 
triotism than by attachment to party ; that his 
great idol is the good of his country, and not the 



116 MCDUFFIE. 

success of a faction or the advancement of an indi- 
vidual, and the eyes of the intelligent and virtuous 
will be fixed with delight upon him, because his 
career will be the career of patriotism, and his tri- 
umph the triumph of virtue, independence, and 
talent. 



WASHINGTON HT 

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

WASniNGTON, , 1818.* 

Since my last, I have been to visit Mount Vernon^ 
memorable for having once been the residence of 
the illustrious Washington, the saviour of his coun- 
try. It is now in the possession of a near relation, 
of the same name, who is one of the associate judges 
of the supreme court, and a very amiable man. It 
is beautifully situated, on the right bank of the Po- 
tomac, which is seen from it as far as the eye can 
reach, pursuing its meandering course to the Ches- 
apeake. I must confess it was not without feelings 
of deep and intense interest, that I strolled over 
ground consecrated by the ashesof oneof the great- 
est and best men the world has produced. The 
richness and beauty of the landscape, were lost in 
the gloom of melancholy reflection, and I gazed 
on the humble sepulchre which contained his mor- 
tal remains, with those feelings which 1 know you 
would experience in beholding, on the far famed 
plain of Troy, the tumuli of Hector, Achilles, and 
Patroclus. There is a singular kind of pleasure in 
contemplating the ashes of the " mighty dead," who 
slumber beneath you. It is a pleasure which re- 
sembles the sensation produced by the heavenly 
tones of the ^Eolean harp, heard amid the repose 
and tranquillity of night. The mind is thrown off its 
poise, and floats along the stream of time, mellowed 

*From " Letters from Washiiig-ton." 
11 



1155 WASHINGTON. 

and chastened by retrospection. The fame of a great 
man preserves every thing connected with him from 
oblivion ; and, in the language of Bruce, " while 
even the situations of magnificent cities are forgot- 
ten, we are familiar with the insignificant village 
that sheltered some humble philosopher, or the rill 
that quenched the thirst of some indigent bard." 

From an attentive perusal of the American histo- 
ry, and a close examination of the character of 
Washington, it appears to me that the principal fea- 
ture of his mind was judgment, which always led 
liim to avoid the dangers of precipitancy, and the 
errors which sometimes result from a more vivid and 
brilliant imagination. The dictates of that judgment 
constituted the line of his conduct, which was, of 
course, marked with the most consummate pru- 
dence. This virtue never seems to have deserted 
liim either as a statesman or a warrior, in a public 
or a private capacity. His prudence and caution 
were particularly observable in his military career, 
and, like Pericles, he never willingly came to an 
engagement when the danger was considerable, or 
the success very uncertain ; nor did he envy the glo- 
ry, or imitate the conduct of those generals who 
are admired and applauded because their rash en- 
terprises have been attended with success.* He had 
many difficulties to encounter, but these difficulties 
he readily surmounted. Patriotism animated, and 
prudence conducted him to triumph. With a limit- 

* Plutarch's Pericles. 



WASHIIVGTON. 11^> 

ed education, and little patronage, he paved liis way 
to greatness, and by his virtues cast a hla/e of 
glory around his character, that time can only in- 
crease, and that posterity must contemplate with 
enthusiasm and delight. There is no parallel for 
such a man in the annals of the world ; so singular 
a combination of virtue, with so few vices ; sucli 
disinterested patriotism, and such unimpeachable 
integrity, with so many temptations to swerve, and 
so many inducements to betray, were never before 
united. Immovable in the hour of danger, no dif- 
ficulties could shake, no terrors appal him. He 
was always the same, in the glare of prosperity, and 
in the gloom of adversity. Like Fabricius, he could 
not be moved from the paths of virtue and honor, 
and like Epaminondas, he made every thing bend 
to the interest of his country. His country was his 
idol, and patriotism the predominant feeling of his 
mind. Personal aggrandisement and individual re- 
sentment and interest, werg alike sacrificed to this 
overwhelming passion, which no difficulty could 
weaken, and no neglect destroy. Washington was 
reserved, without being haughty ; religious, without 
being bigotted ; great in all stations, and sublime in 
all his actions, whether he moved in the sphere of 
domestic obscurity, or employed his energies in 
wielding the destinies of his country. Antiquity 
would have made him a demi-god ; posterity will 
revere him as a great and good man. Every nation 
can boast of its heroes, its statesmen, and its bards, 
but there are few that have produced their Washing- 



120 WASHINGTON. 

tons. He stands almost alone in the history of 
the world, and will be venerated while virtue and 
patriotism have an influence on human action. 

You will, no doubt, be astonished to understand 
that the remains of this great and excellent man still 
repose in a humble sepulchre, on the estate at which 
he resided, and from which, like Cincinnatus, he 
was several times called by his country. The Ameri- 
cans are certainly not ungrateful, but they seem to 
have an aversion to perpetuate a man's name by 
"monumental brass," or to express their gratitude 
by splendid tombs, or ponderous and magnificent 
mausolea. Your long acquaintance with Westmin- 
ster Abbey, where the high and the low, the great 
and the obscure, the good man and the villain, are 
alike honored by their country or their friends, may 
perhaps draw from you a burst of indignation, at the 
apparent apathy and indifference of this great re- 
public, to the memory and past services of its il- 
lustrious dead ; but I question whether it be not cor- 
rect policy. To begin would be to have no end, 
and the erection of a monument to Washington 
might terminate, as in Russia, with a monument to a 
favorite dog. Since the invention of writing, and the 
present extension of knowledge, the *' storied urn 
and animated bust," have become almost useless. 
History will record v/ith fidelity the illustrious ac- 
tions of him who has deserved well of his country, 
and his name will be as perpetual as if Pelion had 
been piled on Ossa to preserve his memory. It was, 
doubtless, owing to the want of this art that the hum- 



WASHINGTON. 



121 



ble tumuli of the Celts and the massy pyramids* of 
the Egyptians were formed ; they had no other 
mode of expressing their gratitude or of perpetuat- 
ing the memory of their dead. After all, perhaps 
the best monument is to " read their gratitude in a 
nation's eyes." 

Can stoned urn, or animated bust, 
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? 
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust. 
Or flattery sooth the dull cold ear of death ? 

It is but justice, however, to state that though 
the American government has refused to erect a 
monument to the memory of its illustrious hero, his 
countrymen have not been quite so fastidious ; and 
the citizens of Baltimore, with that enthusiasm and 
public spirit which have done them so much credit, 
are now engaged in building a monument that will 
at once evince their gratitude, their patriotism and 
their taste. It may be safely asserted that the Ame- 
ricans pay less attention generally to the depositories 
of their dead than most other nations ; they seem to 
be no sooner laid in the earth than they are forgot- 
ten, and the tear of sorrow and the hand of affection 
but' seldom bedews or decorates the sward under 
which the friend, the parent or the relative reposes. 
Among the ancients you will recollect this was part 
of their religion, and we owe to the tenderness and 
affection of a Corinthian nurse for her deceased 



♦ Leur mass indistructible a fatigue le terns. 

T 



De Lille. 



122 WASHINGTON. 

charge, the rich and splendid capital which beauti- 
fies the Corinthian shaft.* We do not often look in 
the burial grounds of this country for the pensive 
cypress, or the melancholy willow, the virgin weep- 
ing over the urn of her departed lover, or the moth- 
er hanging over the grave of her darling child ; no 
flower blooms bedewed with the tear of affection : 
no zephyr wafts the odours of melancholy love ; all 
is waste and dreary, and dead as the sunken grave 
over which you pass, and a few stones, on which are 
engraved the age and name of the deceased, are 
all that remain to manifest the affection of the living 
to those who have passed away and are no more. 

Bushrod Washington, the present proprietor of 
Mount Vernon, is the nephew of the General. He 
seems to be about fifty years of age ; is below the 
middle size, and apparently nervous and feeble. His 
complexion is pale and cadaverous, but his counte- 
nance has the lineaments of benevolence and good 
nature. He has long been one of the judges of the 
supreme court of the United States, and has, during 
that period, discovered no deficiency in his acquain- 
tance with the law. His decisions are, I believe, 



* (( 



Autrefois elles coupoient leurs long-ues tresses sur 
la tombe de leurs parens ou de leurs amis et leur sacrifi- 
cient ainsi Tornement dent elles etoient le plus jalouses. 

O vue delecieuse des tombeaux de la Greece combien 
de doux momens J'ai passes a vous contempler. Mes 
pensees erroient sur ees monumens comme les oiseaux 
funebres qui voltig-ent autour "— M. Guy's voyag-e litte- 
raire de la Greece. 

Iter mortis ing-ridimur nascentes Slnec. 



WASHINGTON. 1-^^ 

generally correct, thoiigTi not very remarkable. I 
know not whether he was ever distinguislied for his 
eloquence at the bar ; but little seems to be known 
of his powers as an advocate or a lawyer, and that 
little does not tend to place him much beyond me- 
diocrity. He appears to be one of those men to 
whom the pleasures of the domestic circle are more 
seducing than the fitful though captivating splen- 
dor which surrounds the temples of the statesman 
or the warrior ; and he prefers what the world 
would term the inglorious repose of domestic feli- 
city, to the feverish agitation and sickly turmoil of 
public life. 

Mount Vernon has become, like Jerusalem and 
Mecca, the resort of the travellers of all nations, 
who come within its vicinity ; veneration and re- 
spect for the memory of the great and illustrious 
chief, whose body it contains, lead all who have 
heard his name, to make a pilgrimage to the shrine 
of patriotism and public worth, and to stroll over 
the ground which has been consecrated by the re- 
pose, and hallowed by the ashes of heroism and 
virtue. A twig, a flower, or even a stone becomes 
interesting when taken from the spot where Wash- 
ington lived and died, and no man quits it without 
bearing with him some memento to exhibit to his 
familv and his friends. 



SOUTHARD. 125 



X SAMUEL li. SOUTHARD. 

The life of this gentleman furnishes another illus- 
tration of the advantages of the free Constitution of 
this country. Like Clay, Webster, Wirt, and 
many others known to fame, he is the fabricator of 
his own fortune, and has acquired the distinction 
which he has reached by the unaided efforts of his 
own genius, and intellectual energies. He was not, 
in the language of Burke, '* swaddled, and rocked, 
and nursed," into eminence, but owes the reputa- 
tion he enjoys, and the rank he has attained, to 
himself and the liberal institutions of his country 

Mr. Southard is a native of New Jersey, and was 
born of parents respectable, but not wealthy. He 
is now in the 48th year of his age, of a feeble con- 
stitution, and with a body shattered by disease, to 
which he has been occasionally subject through life. 
With that spirit of independence which character- 
izes his genius, he threw himself early upon his own 
resources ; and, after passing through his collegiate 
studies at Princeton, with great honor, he com- 
menced his career at the age of seventeen, as an as- 
sistant instructor, in an academy which had been 
recently established at Mendham, in New Jersey. 
The great exertions and incessant labors which this 
new occupation demanded, so impaired his health, 
that he found it necessary to relinquish his school ; 

and, after spending some months in Washington, 

12 



128 SOUTHARD. 

earnest desire that he would continue in the situa- 
tion which he had filled with so much ability and 
satisfaction^ and, during the absence of Mr. Rush, 
then Minister to England, who had been appointed 
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. S. was designated 
to perform the additional duties of that office. Af- 
ter his resignation in 1829, he returned to New Jer- 
sey, and, in a few years, was elected Governor of 
that State. In 1833 he was again sent to the Sen- 
ate of the United States, in the place of Mahlon 
Dickerson, where he is now considered as one of 
the most prominent among the eloquent and distin- 
guished members of that body. 

Mr. Southard is, in person, about the middle 
size, with a face strongly marked, and indicative of 
thought. His compressed lips evince great firmness, 
and the general character of his countenance is that 
of blended mildness and asperity. His mind pos- 
sesses great afiluence and energy, with a happy 
mixture of judgment and imagination. It is active 
in its operations, and fertile in its resources. He 
has accumulated a large treasure of facts, by reading 
and observation, and employs them to enforce, il- 
lustrate, and embellish what he has to say. His 
imagination gilds and ornaments what his judg- 
ment sanctions or his memory supplies. He does 
not sport on the surface of his subject, and amuse 
himself, or those whom he addresses, with the mere 
flowers of fancy, however gaudy, or the ornaments 
of rhetoric, however splendid ; but explores its 



EWING. 129 

deepest recesses — casts the light of his intellect 
into it — illuminates what is dark, explains and il- 
lustrates what is obscure, and renders it clear and 
intelligible to the meanest capacity. His industry 
has been indefatigable and unceasing, and its fruits 
are seen in every intellectual effort he makes. He 
brings to the investigation of every subject, a mind 
fraught with knowledge, and capable of the closest 
and most accurate reasoning. As a speaker, his 
voice is not agreeable ; it wants melody and in- 
tonation, but is distinct, though, from the weakness 
of his body, sometimes tremulous. His action is 
appropriate, and occasionally vehement ; his dic- 
tion is correct and fluent, and his style vigorous 
and flowing. His feelings are ardent, and this ar- 
dor is imparted to his manner, when he speaks. In 
private life he is mild and amiable ; and no one. 
seeing him in the domestic circle, would suppose 
that he ever indulged in the bitterness of invective, 
or could give vent to the pungent sarcasm or terri- 
ble denunciations which he sometimes utters on the 
floor of the Senate, when roused by the appearance 
of oppression, folly, injustice, or tyranny. 



THOMAS EWING. 



This gentleman, like Mr. Southard, has risen to 
distinction by the native energies of his mind, and 
his own unaided exertions. It is pleasing to see, in 



\2'' 



132 EWING. 

returned once more to his former labors, and con- 
tinued at them for two years. These severe toils 
atFected his health ; which, however, a short resi- 
dence at home restored, and he again entered the 
academy which he had left about two years before, 
and proceeded to labor mentally, with the same 
ardor and intensity that he had labored corporeally. 
His progress is said to have been very rapid ; but 
being satisfied that his funds, which were daily di- 
minishing, would be insufficient to enable him to 
complete his education, he opened a school in Gal- 
liapolis, which, in the course of a quarter he threw 
up, not liking the employment, and returned to his 
former occupation at the salt works. He now hired 
a furnace, and by extraordinary labor he acquired 
a sum in the course of a month, to enable him, as 
he believed, to complete his studies. He was 
right ; and in the spring of 1815 he received the 
degree of A. B. , and was the first to receive that 
academical honor in Ohio. He was now 26 years of 
age, and commenced the study of the law, in the 
office of Ge.neral Beecher, who, after he had finish- 
ed his legal studies, from a high opinion of his pow- 
ers, took him into partnership, and in his new and 
favorite profession he rose rapidly to distinction. 
As a proof of his ardor and assiduity, he practiced 
in eight different counties in the State in which he 
lived. His filial affection was again manifested, in 
the purchase of a fine tract of land in Indiana, with 
the proceeds of his profession, on which he placed 



EWINO. 133 

his father and family. He had now acquired so 
high a reputation for ability and talent at the bar, 
that the Legislature of Ohio elected him, in 1852, 
to represent that State in the Senate of the United 
States ; and in this distinguished body he has con- 
tinued ever since, with an increase of fame, and an 
untiring application to the important duties of his 
station, that has given him a claim to the gratitude 
of his country. 

Mr. Kwing is, in person, athletic and muscular, 
broad across the chest, vigorous, but not elegant in 
his proportions, or graceful in his motions. His 
countenance is expressive of good nature, and en- 
livened by a frequent smile ; and though awkward 
in his appearance, his manners have a natural ease 
that even an ejirly intcrcourRe with refined and 
polished society could not have rendered more 
agreeable. Nature has bestowed upon him a mind 
of great powers, which have been cultivated to the 
extent his limited means and opportunities would 
afford. It is analytic and logical, rather than bril- 
liant and imaginative — oratory, as an art, has not 
claimed much of his attention ; and though his ar- 
rangement is lucid, and his mind affluent in topics, 
and fertile in arguments, his speeches possess few 
of the embellishments of rhetoric, or the elegancies 
of art. He cannot blend the utile with the dulci or 
amuse while he persuades. He always endeavors 
to edify, and but seldom attempts to please. Rea- 
soning is his forte — in that be is conscious of his 



N 



136 ^ PRESTON. 

more in the creations of poetry than in the cold for- 
mula of argument. The mind of the hearer is never 
so much satisfied with the force of his reasoning, as 
it is gratified by the splendor of his decorations. 
These are not so puerile and exhuberant as to cloy, 
or offend, but are introduced with great delicacy of 
taste, and propriety of application, and sure to riv- 
et the attention, and charm the mind. His imagi- 
nation is too warm for great depth of thought 5 his 
judgement is sound and discriminating, but is al- 
ways exercised in connecti(m with the brilliant fac- 
ulty we have mentioned. The skeleton of argument 
is always adorned and rendered agreeable by the 
splendid drapery he casts around it ; and the hearer 
is struck with wonder and admiration, without being 
at all times satisfied with the truth of his positions, 
or the correctness of his conclusions. His style 
partakes of the character of his mind — it is rich, 
ornate and splendid, but still adapted to the subject 
on which it is employed. Mr. Preston is an admi- 
rable actor, as well as orator; he knows how to in- 
troduce his clap-traps — how to strike the auditor 
with astonishment and admiration, when he least 
suspects the blaze which is to follow— -and how to 
suit the word to the action, and the action to the 
word, without o'erstepping the ^'modesty of nature." 
When the vivid flash and burst of thunder have pas- 
sed off, the mind of the hearer is permitted to sink 
into repose, and to wander for a time along the 
paths of argument, till another peal startles him from 



PRESTON. 137 

his tranquillity, rivets his whole attention, and fills 
his soul with delight and wonder. All this is done, 
too, with the most masterly power of acting — the 
attitude — the expression of the countenance— the 
whole action are suited to the thought, and calcula- 
ted to give etFect to the feeling he wishes to excite. 
His illustrations are happy and beautiful, and his 
images poetical, and sometimes gorgeous. He does 
not indulge in puerile conceits, or extravagancies 
of fancy» but in figures and images that the finest 
taste would relish as appropriate and beautiful. He 
does not labor to say striking things, but delights to 
throw out beautiful thoughts, "thoughts that breathe, 
and words that burn." His is not the brilliancy 
of the epigramatist — not the brilliancy to which the 
lines of the French poet could apply — 

" Si tu brlllais sans etre utile, 

A ton dernier jour on dirait, 
Ce n'est qu'une etoile qui file, 

Qui file, file, et disparait-'* 

It is the light of a fervid imagination, becoming 
more glowing and heated by its action, as the " cha- 
riot wheels" — to use an expression of Coleridge — 
*'get hot by driving fast." No two men could dif- 
fer more essentially, than Mr. Preston and his col- 
league, Mr. Calhoun. The former possesses great 
warmth of imagination, and the latter scarcely any 
— the one delights in the richest arabesque orna- 
ments of fancy, and the other in the simple beauty 

of mathematical demonstration. The mind of the 

13 



138 PRESTON. f 

one is rhetorical and imaginative — that of the other 
analytic and axiomatic — fond of generalizing, and 
more pleased with a sylogism than the most splen- 
did poetical image; in short, the one is a rhetorician 
the other a logician. Mr. Preston bears a stronger 
resemblance to Mr. Pinckney, a sketch of whom 
will be found in this volume, than perhaps, any ora- 
tor this country has produced, tho' in depth and 
expansiveness of thought, Mr. Pinckney was, I 
think, superior. In action, and most of the artificial 
graces of oratory, Mr. Preston excels, though in 
voice they were both somewhat defective. Mr. 
Preston is more of an elocutionist than was the 
great Maryland orator. He has studied better mo- 
dels, or possesses greater histrionic talent. The 
declamation of some of his fine conceptiorvs is equal, 
if not superior to that of Macready, Booth or Coop- 
er; and his tall and dignified form — his manly atti- 
tude — his graceful gesticulation, and the appropri- 
ate adaption of his voice to the sentiment or feeling 
by which he is influenced, give an impressiveness 
and power to what he utters, that are felt and ac- 
knowledged by all. Mr. Preston seems to be aware 
that the taste of the Ameiican public is not pleased 
with what is merely airy and brilliant, in the eftbrts 
of an orator, and therefore, endeavors to blend the 
useful with the agreeable, the grave with the gay, 
the lively with the severe. He is more of the Roman 
than the Greecian orator; glowing superb — fervent 
and magnificent. On ordinary questions he does 



PRESTON 139 

not reason like ordinary men ; and though he is not 
heated and stimulated as on great occasions, his 
oratorical habits and feelings never desert him ; and 
he pours out his thoughts in the style and with the 
action of an orator conscious of his powers. But 
he seems to think that these powers are chiefly felt, 
and possess their principal charm when employed 
in giving oral expression to the operations of his 
mind. I have heard that he will never consent to 
revise the notes of the Reporter, or prepare his 
speeches for publication, and hence no full report of 
those he has delivered on the floor of the Senate has 
yet been given to the public. If he perseveres in 
this determination, his fate may be that of Sheri- 
dan, whose speeches, from a similar indifference, 
are now almost forgotten from the skeleton form in 
which they were printed ; or, perhaps, as has been 
suggested by an English writer, from a " conscious- 
ness that their material was not fit for posterity." 
The reputation of an orator who leaves no specimen 
of his eloquence behind him, like that of thedistin* 
guished actor, hangs upon the pen of the biographer 
or historian. After he has passed away from the 
stage of life, nothing exists by which he can be 
judged, or which can give him a claim to the con- 
sideration of posterity. What idea can even the 
present generation form of the acting of Garrick, or 
the oratory of Patrick Henry ? We read the 
speeches of Burke, Erskine, Curran, &:c., with 
great pleasure and benefit, as monuments of genius, 



142 LEIGH. ' 

anxious about display ; but speaks that he may en- 
lighten and convince, with all the earnestness and 
sincerity of one who thinks that what he utters is 
founded upon the immutable basis of truth and rea- 
son, and cannot be overthrown. He does not at- 
tempt to throw out brilliant things — to be epigrama- 
tic — sarcasm is not his foi te. " The gall bladder," 
as has be«n said of another, **was omitted in his 
composition" — he has no bitterness in his character; 
and, therefore, what he says is never offensive, or 
irritating to those with whom he contends. His 
style of speaking is more forensic than parliamen- 
tary. He has been more accustomed to the bar 
than the hall of legislation. He examines his sub- 
ject closely and analytically ; his observations are 
sometimes trite, but generally acute; his points are 
usually strong, and he forms them with some feli- 
city of illustration, and great strength and lucidness 
of argument. His attacks are never ferocious or 
wanton — the wounds he inflicts never rankle, and 
though he prostrates his opponent, his triumph is 
never the cause of pain. His conduct on the floor 
of the Senate, and his conduct in the social circle, 
are alike distinguished by urbanity. In all condi- 
tions he is courteous, gentlemanly and kind. His 
style is simple and vigorous — seldom diff*use, and 
occasionally elegant. His manner is quiet and 
easy, but not graceful ; his voice wants variety of 
intonation, and harmony of cadence, and his action 
is not impressive. But he is a strong and powerful 



ROBBINS. 143 

debater; a correct and high-minded man, and an 
eft'ective, and sometimes eloquent speaker. 



A. ROBBINS. 

This gentleman has been a Senator from Rhode 
Island, for several years. He would appear to be 
between sixt^ and seventy years of age, but no in- 
tellectual decay is yet visible. In person he is be- 
low the middle size — thin, and lame in one of his 
legs, which, from the fatigue he experiences in 
standing, prevents him from taking a part in the 
debates of the Senate as often as his inclination, 
and perhaps his sense of duty would induce him. 
Like most men of his age, he adheres to the fashions 
of his youth, and wears his thin hair in a cue, which, 
for a man of his years, is remarkable for its dark- 
ness. Mr. Robbins was, in the early part of his life, 
a professor of languages, and subsequently a Judge. 
There is no member of either House whose classical 
attainments can in the least approach those of 
Judge Robbins. His mind has been deeply imbued 
with classic lore, and enriched with all the trea- 
sures of the fine languages of Greece and Rome. 
He has made it his business to study them by day, 
and pour over them by night : 

'•Noctuma versate manu, versate diurna." 
until he has made himself master of all theirnuiner-'' 



/ 



144 CASS. 

ous beauties, and excellencies. Even now he amuses 
his leisure hours in turning over the pages of De- 
mosthenes, Isocrates, and the Greek historians and 
poets ; and would rather peruse a Greek than an 
English tragedy. On almost all the great questions 
brought up for discussion in the Senate, Mr. R. 
takes a part ; and he never fails to claim the atten- 
tion of that body. His speeches are distinguished 
for great purity and precision of style 5 fine classi- 
cal images, and historical and falicitous illustrations. 
They always partake of the character of the scholar, 
and are what may be called learned. His research 
is considerable ; his arrangements lucid, and his lo- 
gic clear and forcible. 



LEWIS CASS. 

Mr. Cass is now in the 54th year of his age. He 
was born in New Hampshire, in 1782. After com- 
pleting his education, he emigrated to Ohio, where 
he read law, under Governor Meigs, and pursued it 
as a profession for several years, with great success. 
He is said to have displayed, in this profession, dis- 
tinguished ability ; and his reputation at the bar, 
led to his election as a member of the Legislature of 
that State, and subsequently to the appointment of 
Marshal ; a situation which he held till the year 
18 IS. Patriotic as well as talented, he volunteered 
his services in the army, under the command of 



CASS. 145 

Gen. Hull, and received the commission of a Colo- 
nel. Situated as Mr. Cass was, this act must have 
sprung from the purest patriotism, and not from 
ambition, or the love of military distinction. It 
was his good fortune to strike thejirst blow against 
the enemy of his country, and with a detachment of 
two hundred and eighty men he attacked the ad- 
vanced posts of the British army, near Maiden, and 
drove them back on the main body. The proclama- 
tion issued by Gen. Hull, was the production of Mr. 
Cass' pen, and if his counsels had been followed, the 
American historian would never have had occasion 
to blush in recording the disgraceful surrender of 
Detroit. Though deeply mortified at this event, his 
ardor was not diminished, nor his spirit subdued. 
He continued to manifest the firmness of the patriot 
and the courage of the soldier, in all the subsequent 
contests on the frontiers, and had the glory to par- 
ticipate in the defeat of Gen. Proctor and the 
celebrated Indian Chief, Tecumseh, on the river 
Thames. After the termination of the war, in 
1815, Col. Cass removed to Detroit, and was soon 
after appointed Governor of the Territory of Michi- 
gan, which owes much of its prosperity to his able 
and efficient administration. In 1820 he planned 
an expedition, for the purpose of exploring the 
sources of the Mississippi, which was successfully 
accomplished, and its result published in School- 
craft's Journal. For several years he was engaged 
by the General Government, in negotiating treaties 



148 CASS. 

inent features of Governor Cass' mind, are judg- 
ment and memory ; both of which he has improved 
by observation and exercise. He has read much, 
and treasured up a mass of useful facts, and much 
valuable learning, on which he has the faculty to 
draw at pleasure. He is laborious, attentive and 
indefatigable in the discharge of his official duties; 
studious and devoted to the acquisition of know- 
ledge, and solicitous to render himself useful in 
every sphere of life in which he may be placed. 
He is kind and generous in his disposition — a friend 
to the poor, and the patron of merit in every rank 
of society. His mind is expanded and liberal, and 
does not stoop to the narrowness of party views. 
Fortune has been propitious to him in his temporal 
concerns, et longo post tempore venit — and has 
made him wealthy in his advanced age ; a condition 
which affords him an opportunity to indulge the lib- 
eral propensities of his nature, in elegant hospitali- 
ties, and to enlarge his sphere of usefulness. He 
can now enjoy the otium cum dignitate, and re- 
treat, when he pleases, into the shades of retire- 
ment, without the necessity of labor, and relieved 
from the anxieties which attend upon the privation 
of wealth in the evening of life. Governor Cass is, 
in person, about the middle size? well proportioned 
and not ungraceful. His face is oval and fleshy, 
his mouth is wide, and his complexion fair. He 
wears a wig, which, like most wigs, gives a heavy 
and clumsy appearance to his head ; but it is well 



WOODBURY. 149 

and strongly marked. In his manners he is grave, 
without being repulsive; dignified without stiffness, 
and easy without being familiar. His countenance 
expresses the kindness of his nature, and his eye 
the warm feelings of his heart; and no one quits his 
society without being convinced of his moral worth 
and satisfied of his intellectual superiority. 



• LEVI WOODBURY. 

Mr. Woodbury was born in New Hampshire, 
early in the year 1790, and is now in the 46th year 
of his age. He received the elementary part of his 
education in the free schools of his native village, 
in which he afterwards taught at different times. 
He was engaged to instruct a large school at Pep- 
perell, in Massachusetts, when he was but fourteen 
years old, and though so young, is said to have gi- 
ven general satisfaction. In 1805 he entered Dart- 
mouth College, where he continued for four years. 
In 1824, as a testimony of the estimation in which 
his attainments were held, his Alma Mater confer- 
red on him the degree of L. L. D. During his col- 
legiate course he attended the law school at Litch- 
field, in Connecticut, for a year ; and commenced 
the practice of his profession in 1812. At this pe- 
riod of his life, he entered into the political contests 
which then prevailed, and united himself to the 

Democratic party, which he assisted with his ta- 

13 




i 



150 WOODBURY. 

lents. The Federal party was, however, dominant 
in his State, and continued to be so till 1816, du- 
ring which he devoted himself to his profession, in 
which he acquired great distinction. His legal 
knowledge was so highly appreciated that he was 
appointed, in 1817, a judge of the superior court of 
iS'ew Hampshire — the highest judicial tribunal of 
the State. His legal opinions are said to have 
evinced extensive research and accurate discrimi- 
nation. Many of them have been published in New 
Hampshire Reports. 

In 1819 he married Miss Clapp, of Portland, and 
removed to Portsmouth. A few ^ears afterwards 
he was elected Governor of New Hampshire, and 
at the expiration of his term he returned to the 
practice of his profession. 

In 1 825 he was elected representative from the 
town of Portsmouth ; at the meeting of the legisla- 
ture he was chosen speaker of the house, and at the 
close of the session was elected Senator of the United 
States. During the six years he continued in that 
body, he participated in all its most important dis- 
cussions, and was placed on the most important 
committees. Though thus devoted to legislative 
life, he did not neglect his professional pursuits, 
and was employed during the recess of Congress 
as counsel, in cases involving great interests, be- 
fore the superior court of his native State. 

At the expiration of his Senatorial term, he de- 
clined a re-election 5 but was not, however, allowed 



WOODBURY. 151 

to retire from public life. He was chosen a Sena- 
tor for his District in the State Senate ; but being 
invited by President Jackson to a seat in the Cabi- 
net, as Secretary of the Navy, he resigned the for- 
mer and accepted the situation of the head of the 
Navy Department. Upon a new organization of 
the Cabinet, at a subsequent period, he was transfer- 
red to the Treasury Department, where he now is. 

Mr. Woodbury is a member of the New Hamp- 
shire and American Historical Societies, and be- 
longs to several other scientific and literary associ- 
ations in this country. In person he is above the 
middle size, well proportioned, but somewhat en bon 
point. The top of his head is bald, but his hair is 
untouched with the frosts of age ; his face is oval, 
his eye black and soft in its expression, and an 
agreeable smile plays around his mouth. He has 
the ' mens sana incorpore sano.^ — His mind is as ac- 
tive and vigorous as his body. He is capable of 
grfeat intellectual labor, and to him labor est vo- 
luptas. 

Mr. Woodbury is more solid than brilliant, more 
desirous to reason than to sparkle ; more anxious to 
address the judgment than the imagination. His 
argument, however, when he spoke, possessed a 
good deal of ingenuity, and he was remarkable for 
the art with which he handled the subject under 
discussion. His elocution was easy and sufficiently 
graceful; his style is perspicuous and flowing, and 
his cadences not deficient in harmony. He was al- 



152 WOODBURY. 

ways cool and collected, never indicating any 
warmth of temper, or suffering himself to indulge 
in sarcasm and invective. 

There was nothing showy or brilliant in his 
speeches ; nothing that was calculated to strike th^ 
imagination or excite the passions, but much to sa- 
tisfy and convince the reason of the hearer. From 
his long practice at the bar, he had acquired no 
little of that sophistry into which those who pursue 
the legal profession are too apt to fall, from the fre- 
quent necessity they are under to '' make the worse 
appear the better cause." Though prompt and 
ready, Mr. W. was not what may be called a good 
debater. He but seldom allowed himself to ad- 
dress the Senate until he was fully prepared by 
previous study to enter into the discussion ; and 
when he did so, he always acquitted himself well. 
He possesses the temperament of the North, and is 
apparently cold and selfish ; but I believe he is far 
from being so in fact. He wants the ease and fa- 
miliarity of our vitriolic countrymen of the South, 
but is not insensible to thfe warmer feelings of our 
nature. He is just in all his dealings as a man, and 
wishes *' to do unto others what he would that oth- 
ers should do unto him." His official papers are 
distinguished by great neatness and perspicuity. 
They contain nothing ambiguous, clumsy or unin- 
telligible, but indicate a mind of great clearness and 
vigor, capable of irradiating what is obscure, and 



TAN BUREN. 153 

rendering agreeable what is dull. Such is the pre-' 
sent Secretary of the Treasury. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

Mr Van Buren is small in stature, but his form 
is neat, agile and erect. The hair on each side of 
his head, once light, but now gray, is thick, and 
spreads out, while the crown is entirely bald, like 
the head of the elder Adams in the usual portraits 
of him. His eye is gray, his complexion fair, and 
his features regular. He wears a smile upon his 
countenance, when he addresses any one — his man- 
ners are bland and polite, and his deportment dig- 
nified and easy. Like Clay, Ewing, Webster, &c., 
he furnishes another striking illustration of the ad- 
mirable tendency of our free form of government, 
to call out and reward the talents of those whom 
nature has favored. 

From the humblest condition in life, he has risen 
to the high sphere in which he now revolves by his 
own exertions. It is true that he has been thrown 
within the range and operation of favorable circum- 
stances, but some intellectual power is necessary 
to render these propitious, even when they are fa- 
vorable. ** There is a tide in the affairs of men 
which taken at the floodgate lead to fortune ;" but 
it requires tact and discrimination to ascertain 

when the tide is at its floodgate, and to avail one's 

13* 



154 VAN BUREN. 

self of the proper moment to make the plunge, and 
float unresistingly on its bosom. Mr. Van Buren's 
almost intuitive knowledge of mankind, and his na- 
tive energies, have always enabled him to avail him^ 
self of every favorable circumstance as it occurred. 
He has not paused when the propitious moment 
presented itself, but seized it with the energy of 
one determined on success, and bent on pushing his 
fortune to the utmost. Thrown early upon the 
world, and forced into contact with his fellow men, 
his knowledge of human nature has been rendered 
profound and valuable. All the great and leading 
motives to human action are familiar to him. He 
is too deeply skilled in the secret movements and 
mysterious operations of the human heart to judge 
always of others from himself j and having early 
been conscious that the mind is susceptible of 
change, he saw the wisdom and felt the necessity of 
circumspection in what he said or did. He has 
what the phrenologists call the bump of caution ve- 
ry large, which renders him cautious in his decla- 
rations and careful in his intercourse with society. 
Though he is not taciturn in company, he seldom 
says any thing that can be turned against him j and 
is more successful in drawing out the secrets of 
others, than any man of the same distinction in this 
country. Either from mental superiority, or his 
knowledge of the secret springs of liuman action, he 
has the faculty of acting with great power upon 
those with w hom he comes in contact, and on whom 



VAN BUREN. 155 

he feels any motive to operate. He possesses great 
secretiveness, never betrays his own thoughts or 
feelings, but always draws out the secrets of those 
whose secrets he feels an interest in knowing. The 
distinguishing features of his mind are quickness, 
penetration and acuteness. He is more ingenious 
than solid. He thinks more rapidly than profound- 
lyj and as a speaker is more forensic than parlia- 
mentary. When a member of the Senate, he was 
accustomed to handle the subject under discussion 
with great adroitness, ability and tact; but more as 
a lawyer than a statesman, though his views have 
all the expansiveness which belong to the latter. 
He was distinguished as an advocate, and the habit 
of reasoning acquired at the bar, still clung to him 
in the halls of legislation. There are, indeed, but 
few parliamentary orators in our country, consider- 
ing the great number of public speakers of which 
it boasts. The technicalities, hair-splitting and so- 
phistry of the bar, are too frequently carried into 
the legislative assembly, and often spoil the eftec- 
tiveness of parliamentary oratory. Mr. Van Buren 
had all the requisites necessary to constitute an ex- 
pert and able debater ; but as a debater few could 
rival the present Secretary of State. There was a 
readiness and preparation about Mr. Van Buren, 
that made him formidable as an opponent and effi- 
cient as a speaker. He had nothing however of bit- 
terness in his character ; he never retorted with 
acrimony, but always treated his opponents with 



156 , VAN BUREN. 

courtesy and urbanity. He appears to be always om 
the qui vive ; never off his guard, and aever offen- 
sive in his manner (.r address. In conversation a& 
in political life, he is cautious and aeutPy always 
treading upon the skirts of a subject — throwing out 
thoughts as feelers, like the antenoe »f insects, and 
playing upon the surface in an off-handy agreeable 
manner. His colloquial powers are good, but not 
brilliant; not calculated " to set the table in a roar," 
nor to dazzle by their splendor; but still attractive 
from an agreeable and unembarrassed flow of ideas, 
so varied as to suit the different capacities of those 
with whom he converses, and which the intercourse 
of a few moments enables him to ascertain. His 
ambition, *'that last infirmity of a noble mind," is 
unbounded ; and has been but partially gratified. 
Nothing short of the high object in view will satisfy 
him, and no exertion will be spared that can enable 
him to attain it. The " weird sisters have breathed 
the word of promise to his ear," and may not break 
it to the hope. As a presiding officer Mr. Van Bu- 
ren conducts himself with propriety. He wants, 
however, the voice and person of his predecessor, 
Mr. Calhoun, and appears to some disadvantage, 
from the shortness of his stature ; but he presides 
with great temper, impartiality and fairness ; never 
manifesting the least irritation or uneasiness, even 
when made the target at which the shafts of party 
sarcasm are discharged, and warding off the blows 
by a smile of good nature, or a look of indifference. 



VAN BUREN. 157 

Situated as he is, he finds it necessary to prac- 
tice the maxim of Zeno, '*to bear and forbear much" 
— a maxim of which experience has taught him the 
wisdom, and he sits amidst the storm of eloquent 
and bitter denunciation that sometimes rages around 
him, like a political petrifaction, calm, collected, 
and apparently unmoved. Mr. Van Buren is by 
nature, more of a politician than a statesman. With 
him *' self-love and social" are not the same. He 
likes to plan and execute ; but his plans are intend- 
ed more for individual than general good. He has 
all the ingenuity of Maelzel, though differently di- 
rected ; he can operate on the human machine with 
as much facility and skill as the latter upon his au- 
tomata, and produce nearly the same harmony of 
action. With a more enlarged and expanded mind, 
Mr. Van Buren would, perhaps, have been more 
useful, but would not have been so distinguished 
Or successful. What he will be as a statesman, 
should he ever reach the proud elevation at which 
he aims^ time will determine ; and the future histo- 
rian will be able to assign him his appropriate nitch 
in the temple of Fame. 



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